http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/08/07/5093279/ebola-effort-criticized.html#.U-Uut4e9KSM

WASHINGTON In stark, often chilling congressional testimony on Thursday, an official with a relief organization responding to the Ebola crisis in West Africa labeled efforts to control the virus a failure.

Ken Isaacs, a vice president with Samaritan’s Purse, a North Carolina-based Christian humanitarian organization, also said the number of Ebola cases and deaths reported by the World Health Organization are probably 25 percent to 50 percent below actual levels.

During testimony before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Isaacs told lawmakers that volunteers in the affected countries were in dire need of enhanced international support, including aircraft equipped to transport Ebola patients, more laboratories to speed the processing of blood tests and more security for health workers who face violence and a lack of cooperation from distrustful villagers.

Isaacs told of a prominent Liberian doctor who “openly mocked the existence of Ebola” by trying to enter a hospital isolation ward with no gloves or protective clothing. He and another man who accompanied him to the hospital both died within five days, Isaacs said.

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“Easily this present outbreak is going to surpass that in fatalities, as well as overall cases,” he said. “It is clear to say that the disease is uncontained and it is out of control in West Africa. The international response to the disease has been a failure, and it is important to understand that.”

As of Thursday, WHO reported that the Ebola crisis ravaging Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria had killed 932 people, with 1,711 confirmed and suspected cases.

“Our epidemiologists and medical personnel believe that these numbers represent 25 to 50 percent of what is happening,” Isaacs testified.

Ebola only spreads through contact with infected bodily fluids. It cannot be transmitted through airborne particles. But there is no cure or treatment for the virus, which has a death rate of roughly 60 percent.


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