Ebola: Death toll rises to 4,447, 80,000 more could die in 2 months, says WHO

By Doyin Ojosipe

The World Health Organization, on Tuesday warned that Ebola death toll could hit 10,000 per week in 2 months; following the fact that death rate in the Ebola outbreak has risen to 70 per cent, even as Ebola deaths has risen from 4000 to 4,447.
According to CBC News, Aylward had tweeted that about 5,000 to 10,000 Ebola cases per week are anticipated in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone before the end of 2014.
Briefing newsmen in Geneva, WHO Assistant Director-General, Dr. Bruce Aylward warned that if the world’s response to the Ebola crisis is not stepped up within 60 days, “a lot more people will die”, adding that, in the last four weeks, about 1,000 new cases were recorded per week including both suspected and confirmed cases.
He also said that WHO had only estimated the death rate at around 50 per cent, adding that it had turned out on the contrary as death rate has increased to 70 percent.
According to him, the death percentage is a high mortality disease, though the UN is still focused on isolation and early treatment of sick people in order to reverse the case.
Meanwhile, an international aid organization, Doctors Without Borders (DWB) has lamented the laxity of International bodies in the fight against Ebola, even as it revealed that 9 of 16 of its infected members had died of Ebola.
The head of Doctors Without Borders in South Africa, Sharon Ekambaram, has also told newsmen in Johannesburg, that international communities have given too little, as medical workers are left at the mercy of contracting and dying of the disease.
She expressed sadness that WHO and AU have not done enough, but have said so much, where is WHO Africa? Where is the African Union?” said Ekambaram who worked in Sierra Leone from August to September. “We’ve all heard their promises in the media but have seen very little on the ground”, she said.
Some of the organisations health workers, who have been working in Sierra Leone and Liberia, have also expressed frustration adding that basic infection control and protection, such as use of clean water, chorine and soap to disinfect affected areas, are not in place, even as the aid organization’s humanitarian affairs adviser, Jens Pederson, said managing Ebola, “is not rocket science.”