Oxfam says Ebola could be "Disaster of Our Generation"


The international aid agency Oxfam is appealing to European Union foreign ministers to do more to fight Ebola; a disease Oxfam says could be the "definitive humanitarian disaster of our generation."

The chief of the British charity, Mark Goldring, called for more troops, funding and medical staff to be sent to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia - the countries hit hardest by the epidemic.  Goldring said countries that fail to make a commitment to fight Ebola "are in danger of costing lives."

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said in an open letter to the BBC Sunday the fight against Ebola is one in which "the whole world has a stake."  Ms. Sirleaf said "it is the duty of all, as global citizens, to send a message that they will not leave millions of West Africans to fend for themselves".

The World Health Organization says more than 4,500 people have died from Ebola in West Africa.  Health experts predict thousands more deaths before the end of the year.   

The WHO said it would conduct a "full review" of the global Ebola response after the outbreak is under control.

However, the WHO said it would not comment on an internal report obtained by The Associated Press saying the agency missed opportunities to prevent Ebola from spreading in West Africa.

According to the AP, the WHO blamed its staff for a slow response to the Ebola outbreak. It said its personnel failed to grasp that traditional infectious disease containment methods do not work in a region with porous borders and broken health infrastructures.

The leaked report said "nearly everyone involved in the outbreak response failed to see some fairly plain writing on the wall."

U.S. President Barack Obama met with members of his national security and public health teams Saturday evening to discuss the response to the domestic Ebola cases.

Two nurses who treated an Ebola patient who later died in Dallas, Texas, have been hospitalized with the disease.  Investigators are looking into how they became sick.

Meanwhile a cruise ship carrying a Texas lab worker, who spent the trip in isolation for having suspected contact with an Ebola sample, returned to Texas amid reports that she has tested negative for the deadly disease.

Obama is calling on Americans not to give in to Ebola "hysteria or fear."  In his weekly Saturday address, the president urged people to keep the situation in perspective. He said the U.S. may see more isolated cases, but said he is "absolutely confident" officials can prevent a serious outbreak.

Canada says it will send 800 vials of an experimental Ebola vaccine to the World Health Organization in Geneva starting Monday - and the U.N. World Food Program airdropped emergency rations to more than 260,000 people in the Waterloo district of Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.

The area has seen an usually high number of cases of Ebola. Many families have been quarantined.

SOURCE: VOANews