August 25, 2014 – The World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced that 120 health workers have died of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa since March when the disease hit the region.
According to a statement issued by WHO, the 120 health workers died in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and Liberia out of the 250 people that were infected by the disease in the region.
“Several factors help explain the high proportion of infected medical staff. These factors include 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”, the statement added, stressing that in the past, some Ebola outbreaks became visible only after transmission was amplified in a health care setting and doctors and nurses fell ill.
“However, once the Ebola virus was identified and proper protective measures were put in place, cases among medical staff dropped dramatically”, it added.
WHO estimates that, in the three hardest-hit countries, only one to two doctors are available to treat 100,000 people, and that these doctors are heavily concentrated in urban areas.
