Death rate from Ebola rises to 70%
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E-mail Agencies via Shanghai Daily, October 15, 2014
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Health worker Garmai Sumo mixes chlorine with water to make disinfectant for sanitizing a residential area where a resident died of Ebola as other health workers retrieve the patient's body in Monrovia, capital of Liberia, on Oct. 14, 2014. [Photo/Xinhua] |
While some regions have seen the number of Ebola cases stabilize or fall, Aylward said "that doesn't mean they will get down to zero."
He said that the WHO was still focused on trying to treat Ebola patients, despite the huge demands on the broken health systems in West Africa.
"It would be horrifically unethical to say we're just going to isolate people," he said, noting that new strategies like handing out protective equipment to families and setting up very basic clinics -- without much treatment -- was a priority.
Aylward said there is no evidence that countries are hiding Ebola cases but said nations bordering the affected area, including Ivory Coast, Mali and Guinea-Bissau, are at high risk of importing the disease.
"This is not a virus that's easy to suppress or hide," he said, noting there hasn't been a huge amount of international spreading so far.
"I don't expect this virus to just go anywhere. There is exit screening in place and sick people won't be moving."
In Berlin, a UN medical worker infected with Ebola in Liberia died despite "intensive medical procedures." The St Georg hospital in Leipzig said yesterday that the 56-year-old man, whose name has not been released, died overnight of the infection.
The man tested positive for Ebola on Oct. 6, prompting Liberia's UN peacekeeping mission to place 41 other staff members under "close medical observation."
He arrived in Leipzig for treatment on Thursday. The hospital said at the time there was no risk of infection to other people, as he was kept in isolation.
He was the third Ebola patient to be treated in Germany. The first recovered and returned home to Senegal, while a Uganda aid worker is still being treated in Frankfurt.
In Spain, the Ebola monitoring committee said the nurse infected with the virus had experienced a slight improvement but is still in serious condition. Teresa Romero Ramos, was admitted to hospital on October 6 after contracting Ebola while treating a Spanish missionary who fell victim to it in West Africa and died last month.
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