The number of Ebola cases is surging in Sierra Leone as the country suffers from a lack of treatment centres, while lack of food and basic goods is forcing some people to leave quarantine areas, the United Nations said.
The U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) said in its weekly report that a total of 1,062 people had died in Sierra Leone from the virus, with the outbreak particularly virulent in the western areas around the coastal capital Freetown.
Sierra Leone is emerging as the focal point for concern in the worst Ebola outbreak on record. The World Health Organisation said on Wednesday that 4,818 people had died in the epidemic and said the number of cases was still rising in Sierra Leone, though it was stabilising in neighbouring Guinea and slowing in Liberia.
Sierra Leone has 288 beds spread across four Ebola Treatment Centres (ETCs) treating 196 confirmed cases of the disease as of Nov. 2, UNMEER said. However, the U.N. mission said it suspects 50 per cent of cases of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) are not being reported across Sierra Leone.
