The World Health Organization (WHO) Monday announced that the death toll from the deadly Ebola virus has increased from 729 to 887 in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.
Most of the newly reported deaths occurred in Liberia, where on Monday night a special plane to evacuate a second American missionary who fell ill with Ebola landed in the capital, Monrovia. Nancy Writebol is expected to arrive in Atlanta on Tuesday, where she will be treated at a special isolation ward.
Health authorities in Liberia ordered that all those who die from Ebola be cremated after communities resisted having the bodies buried nearby – 22 bodies were prevented from being buried over the weekend.
Meanwhile, the United States of America has announced plans to send at least 50 public health experts to West Africa in the next 30 days to help fight the worst-ever outbreak of Ebola.
A senior US health official said the outbreak was out of control, but insisted it could be stopped.
Announcing the measures, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Thomas Frieden, stated: “We do know how to stop Ebola. It’s old-fashioned, plain and simple public health: find the patients, make sure they get treated, find their contacts, track them, educate people, do infection control in hospitals.
“The single most important thing we can do to protect Americans is to stop this disease at the source in Africa,” he said.
