By Drew Hinshaw in Accra, Ghana and Shirley Wang in Hong Kong
The World Health Organization declared the West African Ebola
epidemic that has killed nearly 1,000 people an international
public-health emergency.
Meanwhile, the world's biggest steelmaker, ArcelorMittal, joined
other Western companies in scaling back business plans or travel in
the region.
Friday's WHO declaration represents a call to member states and
private donors to boost funding and efforts to battle the worst
Ebola outbreak in history, as a surge in cases over the past two
days has overwhelmed major aid organizations.
The threadbare health-care systems of Liberia, Sierra Leone and
Guinea, three of the world's poorest countries, lacked even the
basics of a public-health network before the current Ebola
epidemic, officials there said. Now they find their hospitals in
disarray as supplies run out and as staff abandon posts after
watching their colleagues succumb to the virus.
"The outbreak is moving faster than we can control it," said
Margaret Chan, WHO director general. "Countries affected to date
simply do not have the capacity to manage an outbreak of this size
and complexity on their own."
Several doctors and aid workers on the ground said they had
witnessed a surge in cases over the past 48 hours that has broken
the predictable rhythm of the epidemic. Ebola usually takes eight
to 12 days from the moment of infection to flare up and become
symptomatic. Previous spikes in Ebola cases rose and fell to the
pace of that incubation period.
Now, doctors say, they see back-to-back surges in patient
volumes. At a field clinic in Sierra Leone, 10 people died on
Friday morning, Sierra Leone Red Cross spokesman Abubakar Tarawelly
said. And 40 more arrived. "The number keeps rising," he said.
"It's getting too much for our volunteers."
Burgeoning caseloads and the WHO's terming the outbreak as
beyond control, spells out the discouraging possibility that aid
groups who came to relieve West Africa's beleaguered government
hospitals could themselves become swiftly overwhelmed by the volume
of Ebola patients.
As of Wednesday, 1,779 cases had been reported to the WHO with
961 deaths. Some 140 or 150 health-care workers have been infected,
80 of them fatally. Those numbers don't capture the unknown numbers
of patients who, having seen the chaotic state of local hospitals,
have decided to treat their loved ones at home.
"We do believe there are more cases than what's being reported,"
Dr. Chan said.
The epidemic is reverberating across the region's economy.
ArcelorMittal said it was delaying plans to expand its iron-ore
mine operations in Liberia. The 15 contracting companies working on
the expansion have declared force majeure and are removing their
645 employees, it said.
The company's highly profitable Liberian unit currently produces
five million tons of iron ore a year, and the delayed expansion had
been expected to produce an extra 10 million tons. The company said
it hoped to resume the expansion "at the earliest opportunity" but
didn't know when that might be.
About 4,000 other employees and contractors in Liberia, are
staying put for now and "working to secure equipment and carrying
out other critical activities related to logistics, engineering and
procurement," it said.And British Airways PLC has canceled flights
to West Africa, while mining companies, including London Mining
PLC, have cut back nonessential travel to the region.
On Friday, Nigeria's government said it was ramping up screening
for feverish arrivals at its airports and borders. The country is
also building new medical wards to house contagious Ebola patients
and acquiring supplies such as protective gear as part of what
President Goodluck Jonathan's office said was an $11 million
national emergency plan.
Eight Nigerians have so far tested positive for the Ebola virus,
and one of them died--all of them infected by a single airline
passenger who flew into the country last month, said Health
Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu. The patients have been isolated, and
people who may have touched them during their contagious moments
are under surveillance, he said.
The European Commission also on Friday said it would provide
EUR8 million ($10.7 million) of additional aid to fight the spread
of the Ebola outbreak.
The commission, which is the executive arm of the European
Union, added it would deploy a group of specialists with a mobile
laboratory to help with diagnostics and testing. The specialists,
which would most likely go to Sierra Leone, would be the second
such team the EU has sent to the region.
"Saving lives and providing further support to West Africa is
now more than ever an urgent priority," said EU Commissioner for
Development Andris Piebalgs.
Aid groups in West Africa find themselves building a health-care
system from scratch. Liberia is recovering from a 1989-2003 civil
war that spilled into Sierra Leone. An entire generation in both
countries spent its childhood fighting in or fleeing from conflict.
Guinea was ruled by a series of military dictators from 1960 to
2010.
None of them have more than a handful of ambulances, and
hospital beds are few; in fact, Guinea had the least number of
hospital beds per person of 63 mostly developing nations listed in
a 2011 World Bank survey.
In Sierra Leone, the Health Education Office in the District of
Kenema has the job of teaching people in far-flung villages how to
treat a loved one infected with Ebola. But the Health Education
office only has one pickup truck: a beat-up Toyota Hilux that
routinely breaks down and can't reach many of the villages where
officials believe Ebola is flaring, said Education Officer Michael
Vandi.
There are only two Ebola treatment centers in the country--and
none in the capital. There is only one laboratory where officials
can test blood samples for Ebola and it lies deep in the
countryside where roads fell into disrepair during the war.
Viktoria Dendrinou in Brussels and Gbenga Akingbule in Abuja,
Nigeria contributed to this article.
Write to Drew Hinshaw at drew.hinshaw@wsj.com and Shirley Wang
at shirley.wang@wsj.com
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