Ebola infections could hit 10,000 a week, WHO warns

ALL content used in this not-for-profit blog remain the property of their respective owners.
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/ebola-infection-rate-could-reach-10-000-week-180517131.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

The World Health Organization said Tuesday the Ebola infection rate could soon reach 10,000 a week as world leaders prepared to hold talks on the crisis at the United Nations.

The latest death toll is 4,447, from 8,914 recorded infection cases, as the worst-ever Ebola outbreak spirals in the three hardest-hit countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

On Monday, US President Barack Obama and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for the international campaign against the haemorrhagic virus, which is killing seven out of every ten people infected, to be intensified.

Governments in west Africa have been scrambling to contain the epidemic, with patients in the Liberian capital describing devastating scenes as patients struggled to survive during a strike by health workers.

A 56-year-old Sudanese doctor who had worked as a UN volunteer in Liberia died of Ebola on Monday night after arriving in Germany last week for treatment.

Outside west Africa, medical staff have also been particularly at risk during the crisis, with at least two cases of contamination reported despite stringent safety protocols.

Ninety-five Liberian health workers have died so far in the epidemic. Their colleagues want compensation for the risk of dealing with Ebola, which spreads through contact with bodily fluids and for which there is no vaccine or widely available treatment.

In the US, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg announced a $25 million donation to the US Centers for Disease Control Foundation to help efforts to contain the epidemic.

"Grants like this directly help the frontline responders in their heroic work," Zuckerberg said on his Facebook page.

The UN nuclear agency said it would send specialised equipment to the west African countries hit by the Ebola outbreak to help faster diagnosis.

The machine uses so-called Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction technology that allows the Ebola virus "to be detected within a few hours, while other methods require growing on a cell culture for several days," the IAEA said.