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West Africa's Ebola death toll continues to climb: WHO

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The international body has now confirmed nearly 20,000 infections in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea

Stephen (right) and Sambo (left) talk to a sick man in Freetown to determine if he should be tested for Ebola. (Photo: WHO/Stephan Saporito)

Stephen (right) and Sambo (left) talk to a sick man in Freetown to determine if he should be tested for Ebola. (Photo: WHO/Stephan Saporito)

by Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams

The Ebola death toll in the three West African countries most impacted by the virus has climbed to at least 7,373 of 19,031 known infections, the World Health Organization revealed in data released Saturday.

Western Sierra Leone is the “hotspot” of the ongoing outbreak, according to the WHO, which notes that this country has the highest infection rate, followed by Liberia and then Guinea.

However, Liberia accounts for far more Ebola deaths, leading some to question the accuracy of the WHO’s statistics on infection rates.

Nonetheless, the data shows an increase in overall cases, which are up by 500 since WHO data was last released on December 17.

The numbers were released following news Friday that Sierra Leone’s top-ranking doctor had succumbed to Ebola, making him the 11th of the country’s 120 doctors to die from the disease, according to the Guardian.

Meanwhile, humanitarian aid workers have criticized the global community for its failure to respond adequately as West African governments and grassroots initiatives such as the Citizens Alliance to Stop Ebola in Liberia struggle to stem the ongoing emergency.

“The international response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa has been slow and uneven leaving local people, national governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to do most of the practical, hands-on work,” the NGO Doctors Without Borders//Médecins Sans Frontières declared earlier this month.

The lackluster global response comes despite the fact that Western-driven economic policies played a key role in gutting West African public health systems.

“People are still dying horrible deaths in an outbreak that has already killed thousands,” said Dr. Joanne Liu, MSF international president. “We can’t let our guard down and allow this to become double failure, a response that was slow to begin with and is ill-adapted in the end.”

The Potential Adverse Health Effects of Sitting Too Much

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Mitchell Moffit and Gregory Brown of AsapSCIENCE thoroughly explain why sitting for extended periods of time—at a desk at work, for example—can be harmful to one’s health. Possible adverse effects include decreased bone mass, muscle weakening, increased LDL cholesterol, and even a shortened lifespan.

The good news is that they have created another video describing ways to solve the sitting problem.

‘Entire villages disappeared’: Ebola deaths in Sierra Leone ‘underreported’

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Reuters / Susana Vera

Reuters / Susana Vera

by RT

Ebola’s toll on Sierra Leone is much greater than previously thought, with entire villages killed off by the virus. This means up to 20,000 people could have succumbed to the disease by now, a senior coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) believes.

According to Rony Zachariah, coordinator of operational research for MSF, the Ebola impact on Sierra Leone is in fact “under-reported,” AFP quotes.

“The situation is catastrophic. There are several villages and communities that have been basically wiped out. In one of the villages I went to, there were 40 inhabitants and 39 died,” Zachariah told the agency.“Whole communities have disappeared but many of them are not in the statistics. The situation on the ground is actually much worse.”

The latest figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) put the total number of dead at 4,951 out of 13,567 recorded cases.

But the real total could be up to 20,000 people dead, Zachariah argues. “The WHO says there is a correction factor of 2.5, so maybe it is 2.5 times higher and maybe that is not far from the truth. It could be 10,000, 15,000 or 20,000.”

Zachariah also highlighted the shortage of healthcare workers in the country.

“You have one nurse for 10,000 people and then you lose 10, 11, 12 nurses. How is the health system going to work?” he said.

Even at this point, the pace of dealing with Ebola is slow, he added. “We might get a vaccine and a treatment…but even now we need to go much faster because the clock is ticking…We want action now.”

Meanwhile, the latest cases of Ebola in Spain and the US have sparked fears of an even bigger outbreak, prompting Canada to step up its border security so as to limit the risk of infection spreading into the country.

The federal government announced on Friday it is suspending the processing of visa applications for residents and nationals who have been in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone in the last three months. The same goes for permanent residence applications.

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