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Empty Ebola beds in Liberia pose riddle for health workers
By Derick Snyder and Joe Bavier
MONROVIA/ABIDJAN Fri Nov 7, 2014 10:33am EST
(Reuters) - Health workers in Liberia are struggling to tell whether a growing number of empty beds at Ebola treatment centers is a sign that the country's ramped up response to the disease is working - or just a lull in the epidemic.
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As of Sunday this week, two-thirds of the 696 beds in Liberia's Ebola treatment centers were empty, according to the health ministry. New admissions and the number of dead bodies being picked up by burial teams are both falling.
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"It's almost impossible to tell, epidemiologically, what's happening when you're in it," said Sean Casey, who runs International Medical Corps' ETU in Bong County. Of the 52 beds at his site, 37 are empty, according to health ministry figures.
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Health authorities - overwhelmed by their growing case loads and hampered by an international community that was slow to act - have focused almost entirely on the patients who got to them.
"We still don't have a very clear picture of what's going on outside our treatment units," said Natasha Reyes, MSF's medical coordinator in Liberia.
In fact, under-reporting of cases likely means that the real number of Ebola cases in Liberia is two and a half times higher than figures show, the WHO said last month.
With so many cases thought to be unreported, attempting to track the epidemic is tough. Some doctors, looking at Guinea, fear that sick people are simply being hidden, perhaps due to alarm over the non-traditional burials given to Ebola victims.
"How much of this is happening right now, we still don't know," Reyes said.
...
By Derick Snyder and Joe Bavier
MONROVIA/ABIDJAN Fri Nov 7, 2014 10:33am EST
(Reuters) - Health workers in Liberia are struggling to tell whether a growing number of empty beds at Ebola treatment centers is a sign that the country's ramped up response to the disease is working - or just a lull in the epidemic.
...
As of Sunday this week, two-thirds of the 696 beds in Liberia's Ebola treatment centers were empty, according to the health ministry. New admissions and the number of dead bodies being picked up by burial teams are both falling.
...
"It's almost impossible to tell, epidemiologically, what's happening when you're in it," said Sean Casey, who runs International Medical Corps' ETU in Bong County. Of the 52 beds at his site, 37 are empty, according to health ministry figures.
...
Health authorities - overwhelmed by their growing case loads and hampered by an international community that was slow to act - have focused almost entirely on the patients who got to them.
"We still don't have a very clear picture of what's going on outside our treatment units," said Natasha Reyes, MSF's medical coordinator in Liberia.
In fact, under-reporting of cases likely means that the real number of Ebola cases in Liberia is two and a half times higher than figures show, the WHO said last month.
With so many cases thought to be unreported, attempting to track the epidemic is tough. Some doctors, looking at Guinea, fear that sick people are simply being hidden, perhaps due to alarm over the non-traditional burials given to Ebola victims.
"How much of this is happening right now, we still don't know," Reyes said.
...
