DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Many beds
are empty at newly opened Ebola treatment units in Liberia's urban
centers because the outbreak is now flaring in more rural parts of the
country. In Sierra Leone's capital, there aren't enough treatment units
as the epidemic spreads there.
Those helping
battle the world's worst Ebola outbreak must be more agile to catch up
as the dreaded disease jumps from one place to another, experts say.
That's a challenge because it is a slow process for governments to
authorize aid, to gather it together and then deliver it. And to build
treatment units, even rudimentary ones, takes even more time. By the
time they're built, the outbreak may have moved elsewhere.
In
Liberia, the U.S. this week opened an Ebola treatment unit in
Tubmanburg, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of the capital,
Monrovia. A 250-bed Doctors Without Borders clinic in Monrovia is
treating only about 50 patients. There have been no patients at another
facility in Foya, in northern Liberia, since Oct. 30. The U.S. plans to
build 17 units in all, and it has already opened a field hospital to
treat infected health workers.
The
head of the U.N. mission fighting Ebola in West Africa called on
Thursday for a more flexible and nimble response that puts treatment
units in remote regions and gets staff rapidly to new outbreaks.
Anthony
Banbury warned the U.N. General Assembly that Ebola is an elusive
disease that has just reappeared in Mali where it was thought to be
under control, demonstrating the threat that the virus still poses to
the region. He said the international community is having enough
challenges trying to mobilize resources to respond to the crisis in
hardest-hit Liberia, Sierra Leone and Mali and any outbreaks in other
countries would be "truly devastating."
"Ebola is a fearsome enemy and we will not win by chasing it," Banbury said. "We must get ahead of it."
Liberian President Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf said Thursday she is lifting a state of emergency
imposed to control the outbreak but added that the move does not mean it
is over. In fact, a day earlier she visited a new Ebola hot spot in the
coastal county of Grand Cape Mount on the border with Sierra Leone.
The
outbreak, which has killed more than 5,000 people and infected more
than 14,000 in West Africa, is currently hitting Sierra Leone
particularly hard.
Just as
Ebola hit Liberia's capital earlier, it is now becoming more entrenched
in Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, with dozens of new cases reported
each day.
Britain is training health workers and running units in Sierra Leone. Funds are coming in, though not enough, Oxfam said.
Doctors
Without Borders says the outbreak needs "rapid response teams" that can
bring care to remote villages, rather than trying to get sick people
out. Such teams would include medics, disinfection specialists and
psychologists or social workers and could stamp out a budding outbreak
in a village before it can spread.
Fasil
Tezera, head of operations for Doctors Without Borders in Liberia, said
such mobile teams were frequently deployed in previous Ebola outbreaks,
which typically happened in remote areas. They may need to be
dispatched by boat or helicopter to reach villages that can't be
accessed by road.
"We're
seeing a lot of resources coming in, but in many ways they're following
the pattern of the outbreak from two months ago," said Kris Torgeson, a
liaison officer in Liberia for the group, which has led the Ebola fight.
She was referring to the time when the outbreak in Liberia was mainly
hitting the capital.
"International
aid response must rapidly adapt to this new phase of the epidemic, or
risk undermining progress made against Ebola," Doctors Without Borders
said.
In Washington, Rajiv
Shah, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development,
called on the House Foreign Affairs Committee to approve the Obama
administration's request for $6.2 billion in emergency aid to fight
Ebola in West Africa and shore up U.S. preparedness.
"This
is a fast-moving and adaptable viral epidemic. We need to be
fast-moving and adaptable," Shah said. "We really do require these
resources to be successful. Frankly, we will not succeed without them."