Ebola Kills 100 Health Workers

The number of health workers dying from contracting the deadly Ebola has risen to over 100 since the outbreak of the disease in West Africa.

To date, more than 240 healthcare workers have developed the disease in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, and more than 120 have died.

Dr Godffrey George, a medical superintendent at the Kambia Government Hospital in the north of Sierra Leone, is the latest health personnel to die of the disease after testing positive for Ebola, according to Sierra Leone's Chief Medical Officer, Brima Kargbo.

His death from Ebola makes him the fifth local doctor in the West African state to have succumbed to the haemorrhagic fever that has taken a heavy toll on the country's medical personnel.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), several factors help explain the high proportion of infected medical staff.

The WHO said factors like shortages of personal protective equipment or its improper use, far too few medical staff for such a large outbreak, and the compassion that causes medical staff to work in isolation wards far beyond the number of hours recommended as safe, contribute to exposing healthcare workers to the disease.

 
Lower Death Tolls
The World Health Organisation said that it continued to see a slowdown in weekly Ebola cases in Liberia, although incidence of the disease was still rising in Sierra Leone and stable in Guinea.

The WHO revised the cumulative death toll downwards for a second week running as it sought to improve the quality of its data, with 440 fewer deaths reported in Sierra Leone than in data published last Friday.

The WHO put the total death toll at 4,818 out of 13,042 cases as of November 2, 2014 compared to 4,951 deaths in Friday's Ebola update; but it repeated a warning that the figures continued to be too low because of under-reporting.

Ebola Toll on Countries
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is impairing the ability of governments to raise revenues, because of Ebola, government expenses have risen by about 30 percent in all three countries and fiscal deficits are rising.

The governments of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are experiencing a shortfall of US$ 328 million to be able to function at pre-crisis levels, a study by the United Nations Development Programme has revealed.

In addition, Liberia has had to sacrifice US$20 million worth of infrastructure development and Sierra Leone 16 million since the beginning of the crisis. Guinea has just revised its budget to reflect the new reality, the study shows.

The gaps are caused by increased spending to tackle the Ebola crisis and fiscal constraints resulting from a slowdown of economic activities such as tourism, mining and trade.

Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, Director of the Regional Bureau for Africa at UNDP, has however urged the international community to make sure that the Ebola outbreak does not lead to socio-economic collapse in the affected countries.

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri