11/08/2014
Ebola virus: Liberia health
system 'overtaxed'
10 August 2014 Last updated at 17:19
Many in Liberia say the government's response
to the crisis has been inadequate
Liberia's information minister has admitted
that the country's health care system has
been overwhelmed by the spread of the
deadly Ebola virus.
Lewis Brown told the BBC the system had been
"overtaxed" by the outbreak, but that
authorities were doing their best in the face of
an unprecedented crisis.
The medical charity MSF said officials
underestimated the outbreak and that the
health system was "falling apart".
Nearly 1,000 people have died and 1,800 have
become infected in West Africa.
The Ebola outbreak - the worst-ever - is
centred on Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea,
but has spread to other countries in recent
months.
Mr Lewis told the BBC that the outbreak was
affecting Liberia's most populated areas, and
that people there were "in denial".
"There are religious practices and beliefs,
long-held traditional values that are being
challenged by the procedures... to cure or at
least prevent the spread of disease," he said.
He said Liberia's health care system was "not
the best in the wold", but rejected accusations
that it had not responded quickly enough. The
crisis, Mr Lewis added, would have
"overstretched and overtaxed" any health
system.
"The bottom line is we are at the frontline of a
deadly outbreak," Mr Lewis said.
The outbreak has killed almost 1,000 people
Earlier, the co-ordinator for Medecins sans
Frontieres (MSF) in Liberia, Lindis Hurum, told
the BBC: "Our capacity is stretched beyond
anything that we ever done before in regards
to Ebola response."
She said five of the biggest hospitals in the
capital Monrovia had closed for more than a
week.
"Some of them have now started to re-open
but there are other hospitals in other counties
that are just abandoned by the staff."
'Inaccurate' information
On Saturday demonstrators in Liberia blocked
a highway, saying authorities had not been
collecting the bodies of some victims.
The army was then deployed to restrict
movement, particularly from the worst-
affected provinces to the capital.
Meanwhile Guinea has denied earlier reports
that the government had sealed borders with
Liberia and Sierra Leone.
State TV said the initial announcement - made
by the health minister on Saturday - had been
mistaken
"Guinea has not closed its borders with Sierra
Leone or with Liberia. It's rather that we have
taken health measures at the border posts," it
said.
The Spanish government says a Roman Catholic
priest, infected with Ebola in Liberia, will be
treated with an experimental drug, Zmapp, in a
hospital in Madrid. The drug has been used in
the US on two aid workers who have shown
signs of improvement.
In Canada, test results on a patient being
treated near Toronto after returning from
Nigeria with flu-like symptoms have shown he
does not have the virus, officials said on
Sunday.
The Ebola virus is transmitted between humans
through bodily fluids.
