The World Health Organization and the West Africa nations hit hardest by deadly Ebola will pump $100 million into an intensified effort against the disease that will deploy several hundred more health workers in the region.
The $100 million campaign, which both Liberia and Sierra Leone are supporting, “emphasizes the importance of surveillance, particularly in border areas, of risk assessments and of laboratory-based diagnostic testing of suspected cases,” Chan said in the statement. She also cited the need to better protect health workers from infection.
The WHO now has more about 120 staff in the region, according to the statement. They are seeking doctors, nurses, epidemiologists, social mobilization experts, logisticians and data managers to support that group, the group said. Chan plans to meet today in Guinea with presidents of the nations affected by the outbreak.
While aid groups punched up their efforts in West Africa, a patient infected with the virus that has killed 729 people is expected to be transferred from that region to the U.S. for treatment at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, the hospital said yesterday in a statement. The facility, one of only four set up in collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to deal with highly infectious diseases, declined to identify the patient, citing privacy concerns.
At the same time, two American aid workers identified as being infected with Ebola have been receiving treatment over the past week in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital. They include Kent Brantly, a doctor, and Nancy Writebol, an aid worker.
Article originally appeared in Bloomberg
