The
World Health Organization on Monday reported 19,340 Ebola cases,
including 7,518 deaths in West Africa. Sierra Leone had the most cases,
8,939; Liberia had 7,830 and Guinea 2,571.
On
the hopeful side, Dr. Frieden said he had visited a remote part of
Guinea, where just a few months ago there was no treatment center and
where resistance to visiting health workers had been intense.
Now there
is a center, established by the French Red Cross, with acceptance by the
community, good care and patients surviving, Dr. Frieden said.
On
the other hand, he said, he was alarmed to hear that on a recent day in
Conakry, Guinea’s capital, there were not enough beds for all the
patients who needed them. Leaving infected people in the community can
lead to exponential spread of the disease, Dr. Frieden said, adding,
“That’s what Conakry is at risk of.”
He
said he had met with Guinea’s president, Alpha Condé, who told him that
the country was working hard to open more treatment units in Conakry.
Dr.
Frieden said he was also dismayed to hear about a nurse at Donka
Hospital in Conakry, Guinea’s largest hospital, who contracted Ebola
after starting an intravenous line on a patient who turned out to be
infected. Even though it was six months into the epidemic, the nurse had
failed to put on gloves.
Sierra
Leone has also been struggling, Dr. Frieden said, noting that many
health workers at Connaught Hospital in the capital, Freetown, have died
of Ebola and that the hospital is still “largely closed.” At least 10
people a day have been dying in the surrounding community, sometimes at
the hospital entrance. CONTINUE READING
MEDICALDAILY
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