Ebola death toll up, Sierra Leone needs more beds (AP) Sierra Leone will soon see a dramatic increase in desperately needed Ebola treatment beds, but it’s still not clear who will staff them, according to the top United Nations official in the fight against the disease. Ebola has sickened more than 16,000 people of whom nearly 7,000 have died, according to figures released by the World Health Organization Friday. Sierra Leone is now bearing the brunt of the 8-month-old outbreak. In the other hard-hit countries, Liberia and Guinea, WHO says infection rates are stabilizing or declining, but in Sierra Leone, they’re soaring. The country has been reporting around 400 to 500 new cases each week for several weeks. Those cases are concentrated in the capital, Freetown, its surrounding areas and the northern Port Loko district, which together account for about 65 percent of the country’s new infections, Anthony Banbury, head of the U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “The critical gap right now in those locations are beds. It’s as simple that: We need more beds,” said Banbury, who spoke by telephone from Ghana, where the mission is headquartered. Only about 350 of some 1,200 promised treatment beds are up and [...] newsinfl/ebola-death-toll-up-sierra-leone-needs-more-beds/
Posted on: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 02:15:32 +0000
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