According to Reuters, the United Nations declared that the shortage of food and basic goods is driving some in quarantine zones to leave despite the growing number of Ebola cases in Sierra Leone as the country lacks treatment centers.

UNMEER stated that as of Nov. 2, four Ebola Treatment Centres in Sierra Leone are nursing 196 confirmed cases of the disease, with only a of total 288 beds spread across them. Although 10 new treatment centers with a capacity of 1,133 beds are presently being scheduled for developments, UNMEER reported that a total of 1,864 beds are needed by December.

"An additional 731 safe beds need to be planned, secured and made available by the first week of December," UNMEER said in a report released late on Wednesday. "Lack of available beds in ETCs is forcing families to care for patients at home, where caregivers are unable to adequately protect themselves from EVD exposure, thereby increasing transmission risk."

The U.N. mission said it suspects nearly 50 percent of incidents surrounding the Ebola virus disease are not being accounted for across Sierra Leone, which is emerging as the epicenter for concern "in the worst Ebola outbreak on record," according to Reuters.

Due to a lack of communication and transparency of evacuation procedures, as well as hazard pay, foreign and national medical staff are being deterred from volunteering to run the units, Reuters notes.

Reuters also reported that the World Food Programme has been distributing one-month rations to quarantined household and communities in the borders of Freetown. In Freetown's area of Waterloo 80 percent of destitute peoples have previously received provisions. Although it did not specify further details, UNMEER was informed that several families abandoned their isolated residences due to lack of food and basic goods.

As of Nov. 5, the World Health Organization reported 4,818 deaths due in part of the epidemic with many of these incidents increasing in Sierra Leone every day, while the Ebola virus disease appears to be stabilizing in nearby Guinea and plummeting in Liberia.

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