Ebola surging in Sierra Leone amid lack of treatment centres - U.N

Dakar - The number of Ebola cases is surging in
Sierra Leone as the country suffers from a lack
of treatment centres, while lack of food and
basic goods is forcing some people to leave
quarantine areas, the United Nations said.
The U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency
Response (UNMEER) said in its weekly report
that a total of 1,062 people had died in Sierra
Leone from the virus, with the outbreak
particularly virulent in the western areas around
the coastal capital Freetown.
Sierra Leone is emerging as the focal point for
concern in the worst Ebola outbreak on record.
The World Health Organization said on
Wednesday that 4,818 people had died in the
epidemic and said the number of cases was still
rising in Sierra Leone, though it was stabilising
in neighbouring Guinea and slowing in Liberia.
Sierra Leone has 288 beds spread across four
Ebola Treatment Centres (ETCs) treating 196
confirmed cases of the disease as of Nov. 2,
UNMEER said.

However, the U.N. mission said it suspects an
average of 50 percent of cases of the Ebola
virus disease (EVD) are not being reported
across Sierra Leone.
UNMEER said a total of 1,864 beds were
needed by December. Ten new treatment
centres are currently planned, with a capacity of
1,133 beds.
"An additional 731 safe beds need to be
planned, secured and made available by the
first week of December," UNMEER said in its
report, released late on Wednesday.
"Lack of available beds in ETCs is forcing
families to care for patients at home, where
caregivers are unable to adequately protect
themselves from EVD exposure, thereby
increasing transmission risk."
It said a lack of clarity of evacuation
procedures and hazard pay was deterring
foreign and national medical staff from coming
forward to run the units.
UNMEER reported a growing incidence of
families leaving their quarantined homes due to
lack of food and non-food items, but did not
provide further details.
It said that the World Food Programme (WFP)
has been distributing one-month rations to
quarantined household and communities in the
hard-hit area of Waterloo, in the outskirts of
Freetown, where 80 percent of people in need
have already received rations..