Ebola Virus Outbreak Update: Eleventh Doctor Infected With Ebola in Sierra Leone
An eleventh doctor in Sierra Leone has become infected with the Ebola virus.
According to Chief Medical Officer Dr. Brima Kargbo, as reported in an AP article, a doctor named Dauda Koroma, who was confirmed infected on Tuesday, is currently being treated at a military hospital in the capital.
The U.N. health agency announced Wednesday that poor data from the outbreak is complicating efforts to measure progress in containing the disease.
Up to now the Ebola virus has sickened more than 17,000 people, the majority of these infected being in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Health care workers in these areas face particular danger of contracting the virus.
Although Ebola is still strongly spreading in Sierra Leone, the World Health Organization announced on Monday that the countries Guinea and Liberia had met an interim goal to isolate 70 percent of their patients and to safely bury 70 percent of the diseased corpses.
On Wednesday however the World Health Organization questioned the supposed progress, pointing out that the data is too poor to take away any conclusions from.
The WHO report states, according to an AP article, that the “information is not reliable enough at present to draw any conclusions about isolation," an added that getting gathering any data on safe burials was complicated by the reality that many Ebola deaths go unreported.
Dr Kargbo told reporters that in Sierra Leone unsafe burials are attributed to 70% of new Ebola infections.
Sierra Leone is currently a nation that is lacking an adequate number of health care workers.
The African Union has promised to send 1,000 health care workers to Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone by the end of the year. So far only 87 have arrived.
The AU on Wednesday held a send-off ceremony for 250 more health care from Nigeria.
Dr.Kargbo has stated that about 100 more African health care workers are expected to come to Sierra Leone soon.
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