Red Cross says Monrovia’s crematorium cannot keep up with deaths, turning away dozens of infectious corpses every day.
The crematorium in Liberia’s capital Monrovia is being overwhelmed by the number of dead Ebola victims being brought in, the Red Cross has said.
Fayah Tamba, the secretary-general of the Liberian division of the charity, said on Thursday workers were having to return corpses to a hospital in the city after being told there was no capacity to cremate all the victims.
Tamba said she believed it may now be necessary for international organisations to take over responsibility for handling the crisis from the national authorities.
Liberia is the worst affected of four West African countries hit by Ebola, with 576 deaths from 972 cases to date.
Ebola is transmitted through bodily fluids and the dead bodies of victims are highly contagious.
“We are constrained … On Saturday our team was able to collect up to 41 bodies. On Sunday they collected up to 37 bodies,” Tamba told a local radio station.
“The crematorium did not have the capacity to cremate all these bodies, so we had to … carry them [back] to ELWA (the hospital in the capital).