{"id":139274,"date":"2014-09-15T13:43:35","date_gmt":"2014-09-15T13:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=139274"},"modified":"2014-09-15T13:43:35","modified_gmt":"2014-09-15T13:43:35","slug":"liberia-running-room-ebola-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/liberia-running-room-ebola-patients\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberia Running Out Of Room For Ebola Patients"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael T. Snyder
\nRINF Alternative News<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

There is not a single empty bed available for an Ebola patient in Liberia right now, but thousands more cases are expected in the coming weeks. Entire families have been driving around in taxis looking for some place that will take their sick family members, but every treatment facility is already full.<\/p>\n

According to the World Health Organization, many of those potential Ebola patients end up returning to their homes where there will inevitably spread the virus to even more people. What we are watching unfold is literally a nightmare scenario. According to the WHO, 4,293 cases of Ebola have now been recorded and 2,296 people have died from the disease. But what makes those numbers so alarming is that the spread of the virus appears to be accelerating. 47 percent of the deaths and 49 percent of the cases have come in the last 21 days. If Ebola continues to spread at an exponential pace like this, we could be looking at the greatest public health crisis in any of our lifetimes.<\/p>\n

Health officials are feverishly trying to open new treatment facilities in Liberia, but they can\u2019t seem to keep up with the number of new cases. The moment a new facility opens,\u00a0it is immediately filled<\/strong><\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as a new Ebola treatment facility is opened, it immediately fills to overflowing with patients, pointing to a large but previously invisible caseload,\u201d the agency said in a statement about the situation in Liberia. \u201cMany thousands of new cases are expected in Liberia over the coming three weeks.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And as I mentioned above, some potential Ebola victims haven\u2019t been able to find anywhere to go. The following comes from a recent\u00a0NBC News report<\/strong><\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Monrovia, taxis filled with entire families, of whom some members are thought to be infected with the Ebola virus, crisscross the city, searching for a treatment bed. There are none. As WHO staff in Liberia confirm, no free beds for Ebola treatment exist anywhere in the country.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And because Ebola victims have been using taxis to travel around in search of treatment, that has made those taxis \u201ca hot source of potential Ebola virus transmission\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cAccording to a WHO staff member who has been in Liberia for the past several weeks, motorbike-taxis and regular taxis are a hot source of potential Ebola virus transmission, as these vehicles are not disinfected at all, much less before new passengers are taken on board,\u201d WHO said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen patients are turned away at Ebola treatment centers, they have no choice but to return to their communities and homes, where they inevitably infect others, perpetuating constantly higher flare-ups in the number of cases.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

At this point there is no hope that Ebola will be defeated in Liberia any time soon. In fact, the WHO says that it is anticipating \u201cthousands of new cases\u201d in Liberia in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Things have gotten so bad that a door-to-door campaign has been organized to try to track down those who have the virus. Between September 19th and September 21st, volunteers\u00a0will visit every single home in Liberia<\/strong><\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n

Volunteers in Sierra Leone are to visit every home in the country of 6 million to track down people with Ebola and remove dead bodies.<\/p>\n

Steven Ngaoja, the head of the country\u2019s Ebola Emergency Operations Centre, said more than 20,000 volunteers would go door-to-door as part of a three-day curfew.<\/p>\n

He said every house in the country would be visited from September 19 to 21.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hopefully all of those volunteers will be given proper protective equipment. Otherwise, such an endeavor could end up just accelerating the spread of the virus even more.<\/p>\n

And the truth is that there are probably far more people sick in Liberia than we are being told.<\/p>\n

In fact,\u00a0even the WHO admits<\/strong><\/a> that the official numbers greatly underestimate the scope of this crisis\u2026<\/p>\n

As well as struggling to contain the disease, the organization is having difficulty compiling data on the number of cases, said Sylvie Briand, the director of WHO\u2019s department of pandemic and epidemic diseases.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that the numbers are under-estimated. We are currently working to estimate the under-estimation<\/strong>,\u201d Briand told a news briefing in Geneva.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a war against this virus. It\u2019s a very difficult war. What we try now is to win some battles at least in some places.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One doctor says that the real numbers could be \u201cdouble or triple<\/strong><\/a>\u201d what we are being told.<\/p>\n

But nobody really knows.<\/p>\n

And as the numbers continue to grow, there won\u2019t be places to treat all of the new victims.<\/p>\n

According to one report, there are only approximately\u00a0570 beds<\/strong><\/a> in Ebola treatment facilities in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia combined.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, that is not going to do the job, and it is now being reported that Ebola is\u00a0surging back<\/strong><\/a> in places where it was thought that it had been beaten.<\/p>\n

Right now we are losing the battle to contain this virus, and this might just be the beginning of this plague.<\/p>\n

The other day my friend Mac Slavo<\/strong><\/a> shared a video that was produced by MIT and the New England Complex Systems Institute. This video uses a computer simulation to show what the spread of Ebola could look like if it goes worldwide\u2026<\/p>\n