Ebola crisis: No impact from pledges for help, MSF says
Health workers at an Ebola treatment centre in Guinea. PHOTO BY AFP
What you need to know:
The disease has killed about 4,500 people so far, mostly in West Africa..
Monrovia- International pledges of deployments and aid for Africa’s Ebola-hit regions have not yet had any impact on the epidemic, a major medical charity says.
Mr Christopher Stokes of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said the disease was still out of control.
He said it was “ridiculous” that volunteers working for his charity were bearing the brunt of care in the worst-affected countries.
The disease has killed about 4,500 people so far, mostly in West Africa.
MSF runs about 700 out of the 1,000 beds available in treatment facilities in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Experts say at least three times that number are needed.
Donors have given almost $400m to UN agencies and aid organisations, following an appeal launched in September for $988m.
Separately, the UN is seeking $1b for an Ebola trust fund, to provide a flexible source of back-up money to contain Ebola.
But UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday made another urgent appeal, saying the trust fund had received only $100,000 - from Colombia - though $20m has been pledged.
Mr Stokes said promises from the international community were encouraging “but it is not having any significant impact on the epidemic and it won’t now for maybe another month or month and a half”.
“We’ve been calling for massive deployments for several months now and the deployments are always behind the curve,” he said.
Another NGO, Action Aid, said the outbreak had to be tackled at source in West Africa.
Its head of humanitarian response, Mr Mike Noyes, said in a statement: “There remains an urgent demand in countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone for more doctors, nurses, medical supplies and support for preventative measures.”
He added: “It is vital the world increase its efforts in fighting the disease.”
Calls for more aid have also been made in recent days by US President Barack Obama, UK Prime minister David Cameron, and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim.
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has told the BBC he was “bitterly disappointed” with the international community’s response.
“If the crisis had hit some other region it probably would have been handled very differently,” he said in an interview with BBC Newsnight.
