When will it end? Ebola continues to rage in Sierra Leone, West Africa

There is grim new from West Africa, where the United Nations has reported that due to a severe lack of treatment centers the number of cases of Ebola in Sierra Leone is surging. Even more worryingly, scarce food supplies may be forcing many people-some potentially infected with Ebola-to leave quarantine areas.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) gave this warning as Sierra Leone's Deputy Minister of Health revealed that the outbreak and death toll had shaken the people's confidence in the nation's healthcare system. Many people are dying from treatable disease now because the refuse to go to clinics or hospitals for treatment.

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The current Ebola death toll stands at 4,818, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports. Most of these deaths have occurred in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

As of now, the Ebola outbreak is improving in Liberia and stable in Guinea, however, two-thirds of the new Ebola cases in the past three weeks have come from Sierra Leone.

Currently, Sierra Leone only has four Ebola Treatment Centers and only 288 beds. Since early this week they were treating 196 patients.

Alarmingly, UNMEER says about 50% of Ebola cases are not being reported in Sierra Leone.

A "lack of available beds in (Ebola Treatment Centers) is forcing families to care for patients at home, where caregivers are unable to adequately protect themselves from EVD exposure, thereby increasing transmission risk," a UNMEER report released on November 5 said.

To control the outbreak, UNMEER estimates that the affected countries will need a total of 1,864 beds by December, but the 10 new Ebola centers planned will only have a total capacity of 1,133 beds.

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