'Losing battle': MSF says the world is failing to control the Ebola outbreak

International medical agency Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) said the world was “losing the battle” to contain Ebola as the United Nations warned of severe food shortages in the hardest-hit countries. MSF told a UN briefing in New York that world leaders were failing to address the epidemic and called for an urgent global biological disaster response to get aid and personnel to west Africa. MSF said in a statement accompanying the briefing that the crisis was particularly acute in Monrovia, where it is estimated that “800 additional beds are needed”. MSF said that while its care centres in Liberia and Sierra Leone were overcrowded, people were continuing to die in their communities.

Six months into the worst Ebola epidemic in history, the world is losing the battle to contain it. Leaders are failing to come to grips with this transnational threat.

MSF international president, Joanne Liu

The comments came as a third American health worker tested positive for the deadly virus while working with patients in Liberia, the worst-hit country. Two fellow US health workers who worked at the same ELWA hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia were previously flown home and successfully treated for the virus. Unlike the others, the latest US victim had not been working directly with Ebola patients, and it is not yet clear how he caught the disease, which is usually fatal. The Ebola outbreak has infected 3,062, according to the latest figures released by the WHO. At current infection rates, the agency fears it could take six to nine months and at least $490 million to bring the outbreak under control, by which time more than 20,000 people could be affected.

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