The Ebola epidemic continues to progress in West Africa. With more than 500 infections, including 337 fatal, the virus is now “out of control” says Médecins Sans Frontières.
337 deaths and the contagion does not seem to be slowing down. The Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa is “out of control” according to Médecins Sans Frontières. It would even experience “a second wave,” said Bart Janssens, director of medical operations at the Associated Press.
On June 20, the ministers of health of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia met in Conakry. Guinean Minister Rémy Lamah recalled that “all measures have been taken to get to the end of this epidemic. He also called on the populations to take their responsibilities and respect the sanitary instructions. Bart Janssens, for his part, criticized the ineffectiveness of the WHO and African governments in containing the Ebola epidemic.
Educate the populations
The various officials are passing the buck, and the virus continues to circulate. At the last point of the WHO, on June 18, the filovirus had infected 528 people and killed more than 330. “It is clear that the epidemic is now experiencing a second wave,” lamented Bart Janssens. These unprecedented figures are accompanied by high mortality… and no drug can yet treat the disease. The only solution: educate the populations to limit transmission as much as possible.
Here again, the task is difficult, in a territory where traditional medicines dominate. “WHO and its partners continue to provide the necessary technical expertise to ministers of health to stop the transmission of the virus by communities or health care structures”, underlined the WHO in its last epidemiological point. A mission was even dispatched to Guinea. It will have to assess the necessary response to the epidemic and propose an appropriate strategic approach. For this, it will be necessary to “reabsorb the community resistance which is emerging in certain areas. “
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