Wednesday, November 26, 2014

War against Ebola in West Africa remains a Tough Fight

A snapshot of the Ebola epidemic raging across West Africa shows a wildfire of infections only slightly contained.
While cases have been on the decline in Liberia, the outbreak is worsening in neighboring countries, where basic Ebola-fighting tools are impractical.
Health workers carry the body of a victim of the Ebola 
virus in Macenta, in Guinea, on Nov. 21.
(Photo: Kenzo Tribouillard, AFP/Getty Images)
Identifying the infected and those they've touched, and isolating them to break the transmission chain are all but impossible in Sierra Leone's capital of Freetown as well as the jungles of Guinea, says Jordan Tappero, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's second-in-command for the regional response.
Tombstones mark the burial site of Ebola victims at a 
cemetery at the Kenama treatment center in Sierra 
Leone on Nov. 15. 
(Photo: Francisco Leong, AFP/Getty Images)
The new surge of Ebola in Sierra Leone follows a devastating one in Monrovia two months ago. Such a furious spread is something disease trackers say they've never seen in the 38 years since the virus was first identified.
"This is kind of unprecedented or uncharted territory for (fighting) Ebola," Tappero says, particularly in the congested streets of Freetown. "When you get these large urban outbreaks, there's just too many people. Contact tracing teams can't track everybody."
A nurse checks on a patient at the Kenama treatment 
center. (Photo: Francisco Leong, AFP/Getty Images)
Here in Liberia, new cases continue to pop up, though on a smaller scale, and there are adequate treatment facilities — virtually the only goods news right now in the Ebola war. But as infection clusters still emerge in rural areas of the country, CDC teams rush in like firefighters to assess and assist and are increasingly exhausted, says team leader Kevin DeCock.
"People are stretched. They're running 18 hours a day. It's difficult. And everyone is doing that," DeCock says.
Read the rest of the story HERE.

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