Ebola crisis will take six months to control

FE Team | Published: August 16, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

The outbreak of Ebola in West Africa will take at least six months to bring under control, the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says, report agencies
Speaking in Geneva, MSF President Joanne Lui called for strengthened international co-ordination led by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Earlier, WHO said the scale of the outbreak appeared to be "vastly underestimated". It said that "extraordinary measures" were needed.
The epidemic began in Guinea in February and has since spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
So far, 1,069 people have died.
Meanwhile, the United Nations will provide food aid to a million people affected by the Ebola outbreak wreaking havoc in west Africa, the World Food Programme said Friday.
"At the request of the WHO (World Health Organisation) and the governments concerned, we are putting in place assistance for around one million people" in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, WFP spokeswoman for West Africa Fabienne Pompey told AFP.
Ms Lui said that controlling the outbreak in Liberia - which has recorded more than 300 deaths - was vital to containing the epidemic.
"If we don't stabilise Liberia, we will never stabilise the region," she said. "In terms of timeline, we're not talking in terms of weeks, we're talking in terms of months. We need a commitment for months, at least I would say six months, and I'm being, I would say, very optimistic."
Ms Lui also called for more action from the international community, led by WHO - the UN's health agency. "All governments must act. It must be done now if we want to contain this epidemic," she said.
Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with the body fluids of a person who is infected.
Initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external haemorrhaging from areas such as eyes and gums, and internal bleeding which can lead to organ failure.
The WHO said in a statement that its staff had seen evidence that the number of reported cases and deaths did not reflect the scale of the crisis.