MSF warns Liberia Ebola 'progress' could be illusory
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-10-msf-liberia-ebola-illusory.html
Global aid agency Doctors Without Borders urged caution Thursday over claims of a slowdown in infections in Ebola-hit Liberia, saying the apparent drop could be due to poor management of the sick.
The warning follows an announcement by the World Health Organization (WHO) that data from a range of sources including funeral directors and treatment centres indicated lower admission rates and burials.
But the medical charity, known by its French initials MSF, warned that "mandatory cremation of dead bodies and a poor ambulance and referral system could also be reasons for this decrease in admissions".
"It is too soon to draw conclusions on the reduction of Ebola cases in Monrovia," Fasil Tezera, MSF head of mission in Liberia, said in a statement.
"While the number of admissions in MSF's 250-bed Monrovia Ebola centre have dropped to around 80, we do not have a full picture of the extent of the outbreak and estimates might not be reliable."
An MSF spokeswoman in Dakar told AFP many people in the capital were calling the Ebola hotline to report that they were sick but were not being picked up because of a lack of ambulances and were going missing from the statistics.
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http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-10-msf-liberia-ebola-illusory.html
Global aid agency Doctors Without Borders urged caution Thursday over claims of a slowdown in infections in Ebola-hit Liberia, saying the apparent drop could be due to poor management of the sick.
The warning follows an announcement by the World Health Organization (WHO) that data from a range of sources including funeral directors and treatment centres indicated lower admission rates and burials.
But the medical charity, known by its French initials MSF, warned that "mandatory cremation of dead bodies and a poor ambulance and referral system could also be reasons for this decrease in admissions".
"It is too soon to draw conclusions on the reduction of Ebola cases in Monrovia," Fasil Tezera, MSF head of mission in Liberia, said in a statement.
"While the number of admissions in MSF's 250-bed Monrovia Ebola centre have dropped to around 80, we do not have a full picture of the extent of the outbreak and estimates might not be reliable."
An MSF spokeswoman in Dakar told AFP many people in the capital were calling the Ebola hotline to report that they were sick but were not being picked up because of a lack of ambulances and were going missing from the statistics.
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