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 The worst Ebola outbreak on record has killed more than 2,400 people
in West Africa - more than half of them in Liberia. Liberian
officials have called the outbreak the greatest threat to national
stability since a 1989-2003 civil war.
Many in the country, founded by descendants of freed American
slaves, have looked to Washington for support, as they did during
the civil war, which killed nearly 250,000 people.
The U.S. government has already committed around $100 million to
tackle the outbreak by providing protective equipment for healthcare
workers, food, water, medical and hygiene equipment.
U.S. Ambassador to Liberia Deborah Malac told reporters in Monrovia
that the United States would support Liberia both through the
epidemic and beyond.
"We're committed, as President Obama has said, to see this through
to the end as well to address the lingering impact, especially on
the economic side, that Liberia is expected to experience as the
result of this outbreak,” she said.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf faced criticism after
troops fired live rounds at a protest over a quarantine imposed in
the ocean-front slum West Point in the capital. A 15-year-old boy
was fatally shot.
"We're going to be training the Liberian national police and the
armed forces on how they can best support isolation operations and
to provide security near hospitals, holding centers and treatment
units," Malac said, without providing further details.
EVACUATION CALLS
With the death toll from Ebola in West Africa rising sharply in the
last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday at
least 500 foreign experts were needed. [ID:nL5N0RD1DS]
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has also called on
wealthy nations to send military medical teams to West Africa to
boost healthcare systems that have been completely swamped by the
disease.
Cuba on Friday announced that it would deploy 165 medical personnel
to Sierra Leone next month, the largest contingent of foreign
doctors and nurses committed so far.
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The U.S. military said this week it will build a 25-bed, $22 million
field hospital in Liberia to care for health workers infected with
the virus. A Pentagon spokesman said it would be built by the U.S.
military and handed over to Liberians to run.
France has also said it would deploy 20 specialists in biological
disasters to its former colony Guinea. Britain will also build and
operate a 62-bed hospital in Sierra Leone.
MSF has said, however, the pledges by Western government represent
just a fraction of the beds required to cope with the disease. It
estimates that hundreds of additional beds are needed in Monrovia
alone, where Ebola patients have been turned away from overflowing
clinics.
In Sierra Leone, calls grew for a local doctor infected with Ebola
to be medically evacuated to Europe after several foreign healthcare
workers were flown out for treatment overseas. Dr Olivette Buck, who
ran a health center in a western suburb of Freetown, was the fourth
Sierra Leonean doctor infected.
"We have already lost three doctors (and) with our already limited
amount of doctors and health workers we cannot afford to lose
another one," Muctar Turay, leader of the group WeCare Sierra Leone,
told Reuters.
Including nurses and other staff, over 30 health workers have died
of Ebola in Sierra Leone since the outbreak began.
Ibrahim Ben Kargbo, an adviser to President Ernest Bai Koroma, said
the government was "seriously looking into the matter" and a
decision would be taken soon.
(Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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