Ebola cases surge in Sierra Leone

WHO targets on isolating patients and medical burials missed as NGO warns virus has reduced country to ‘a nation of mere beggars’

THE GUARDIAN   By  Lisa O'Carroll                                                                                           Dec. 1, 2014

FREETOWN --SIERRA Leone-- 
Ebola continues to surge in Sierra Leone, with the number of cases quintupling in Freetown alone in the past two months, according to new figures.

A health worker gives a drink to a young patient at the Kenema treatment centre, Sierra Leone. Photograph: Francisco Leong/AFP/Getty Images

The latest health ministry figures come as the World Health Organisation (WHO) admits it has not met a goal set in early October to get the disease under control by isolating 70% of cases by 1 December. Only Guinea is on track to meet the goal, according to an update from WHO.

In Liberia, only 23% of cases are isolated and 26% of the needed burial teams are in place. In Sierra Leone, about 40% of cases are isolated. Figures for Sierra Leone published over the weekend show that the number of confirmed cases in Freetown now stands at 2,052, almost 200 of those over the past weekend.

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/dec/01/ebola-cases-surge-in-sierra-leone