WHO: Ebola spread getting out of control

Washington, Sept 12: The World Health Organization and other health agencies have confirmed that the spread of

has gone out of control and needs a major scale-up in the form of infrastructure. Military flights for delivering supplies, US lawmakers and leading doctors is also important.

With death tolls going as high as 2,296 and 4,293 infected in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria since the start of this year, there is a serious concern over controlling systems.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease said,"The problem is that unless we have a massive scale-up of resources in the form of hospital beds, personnel, equipment, we are not going to be able to control this."

He further added,"We need to do something at a much higher scale that we are doing now. We are going to need thousands of more people, thousands of more beds. We probably will need some sort of military presence -- not with guns -- but military that have logistic capabilities of flying equipment in and out, this kind of thing."

Top health agencies are discussing the outcome of the biggest Ebola outbreak in history and charting out measures to contain it. Meanwhile, funds are flooding in from various international organizations. WH, for instance has dedicated USD 100 million, the World Bank vowed USD 200 million, European Commission USD 181 million, and United States USD 75 million.

Bill and Melinda Foundation has also contributed USD 50 million to UN agencies engaged in emergency efforts.

Interestingly, doctors Annette Rid of King's College London and Ezekiel Emanuel of the University of Pennsylvania are of a different opinion who believe that the disease is unlikely to become a global health threat.

Caused when someone comes in contact with the fluid of an infected person, Ebola can be contained with isolation.

OneIndia News