Doctors Without Borders: Ebola outbreak ‘like wartime’

Though there have been different moves to tackle the Ebola virus outbreak ravaging four different West African countries, a prominent medical doctor says it may take about six months to bring the situation under control.

On Thursday, Nigeria imported Nano Silver, an experimental trial drug for Ebola, while Liberia also procured ZMapp, another trial drug, for the disease.

Ebola has claimed about 1,069 lives in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.

However, Joanne Liu, the international president of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF (Doctors Without Borders), said in Geneva on Friday that it would take about six months to overcome the Ebola challenge.

She compared the situation to “wartime”, calling on more experts to assist in fighting the disease.

Liu maintained that the World Health Organisation (WHO) needs to do more in checking the spread of Ebola.

That charge came at a time WHO itself said it was coordinating a “massive scaling-up” of the international response against Ebola.

The statement further revealed that extraordinary measures are needed to check the diseases as the outbreak is expected to continue.

“Part of the challenge is the fact that the outbreak is in settings, characterised by extreme poverty, dysfunctional health systems, a severe shortage of doctors and rampant fear,” it said.