MSF told a UN briefing in New
York that world leaders were failing to address the epidemic and called
for an urgent global biological disaster response to get aid and
personnel to west Africa.
"Six
months into the worst Ebola epidemic in history, the world is losing
the battle to contain it.
Leaders are failing to come to grips with this
transnational threat," said MSF international president Joanne Liu.
"The
(World Health Organization) announcement on August 8 that the epidemic
constituted a 'public health emergency of international concern' has not
led to decisive action, and states have essentially
joined a global coalition of inaction."
Her
comments came as a third American health worker tested positive for the
deadly virus while working with patients in Liberia, the worst-hit
country.
"My heart was deeply
saddened, but my faith was not shaken, when I learned another of our
missionary doctors contracted Ebola," said Bruce Johnson, president of
the SIM Christian missionary group for whom the unnamed American worked.
Two
fellow US health workers who worked at the same ELWA hospital in the
Liberian capital Monrovia were previously flown home and successfully
treated for the virus.
Unlike
the others, the latest US victim had not been working directly with
Ebola patients, and it is not yet clear how he caught the disease, which
is usually fatal.
Liu called
for the international community to fund more beds for a regional
network of field hospitals, dispatch trained personnel and deploy mobile
laboratories across Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. FULL STORY
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