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Several organizations are evacuating workers from the three countries where a five-month old Ebola outbreak has worsened.
The Peace Corps said Wednesday that it was temporarily removing 340 volunteers working in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea because of the virus's spread. Two corps volunteers were placed in isolation and under observation?though they aren't symptomatic?after coming in contact with an individual who later died of Ebola, a spokeswoman said.
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Two U.S. faith-based organizations that are helping to treat Ebola patients in Liberia and have had American staff infected said they were evacuating nonessential personnel due to the spread of the virus, as well as security issues. Another U.S. citizen and a top doctor from Sierra Leone have died.
The developments highlight the risks for foreigners as well as for health staff treating Ebola patients. And they underscore the gravity of the evolving crisis in a poor corner of West Africa where government authorities and international health workers have struggled to bring the deadly outbreak under control.
"This is a growing crisis of proportions that will cost, we think, thousands of lives and maybe more," said Bruce Johnson, president of SIM USA, a Charlotte, N.C., missionary group, one of the groups helping Ebola patients in Liberia. "The international community has the resources and people to respond, but they need to respond."
While organizations are pulling out nonessential personnel, he said more funds and health-care workers are needed on the ground to fight the resurgence of the disease in the three African countries.
SIM will evacuate about 60 to 70 spouses, children and other nonmedical staff in the next few days, Mr. Johnson said, but staff needed to run its Ebola treatment centers will stay. One treatment center has stopped admitting new patients temporarily. "This is due primarily to the escalation of the disease?it's spreading further and faster," Mr. Johnson said.
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The CDC has warned doctors to be on the alert for patients from West Africa with Ebola symptoms and says it is sending more disease detectives to the region.
The U.K. government held an ad hoc emergency committee meeting on Wednesday to discuss possible measures to help control the outbreak as well as respond to possible Ebola cases in U.K. nationals in West Africa.
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Ebola experts say the first several days of the illness are critical, with most deaths from the disease occurring between the eighth and 10th day. Roughly two-thirds of the Ebola patients in the current outbreak in three West African countries have died. The incubation period for Ebola lasts between two and 21 days.
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