People pass an Ebola awareness mural in Monrovia, Liberia (Image: John Moore/Getty Images)
Ebola is hanging on. For the past five weeks, there have been 20 to 27 new cases per week in Guinea and Sierra Leone, and last week there were three new cases in Liberia, which thought it was rid of the disease in early May.
Rich countries meet in New York this week to pledge funds for rebuilding the countries’ health systems: aid given so far amounts to only two-thirds of the $2.1 billion they say they need by 2018.
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“This is about getting to zero [cases] and staying at zero,” says Marie-Paule Kieny of the World Health Organization. Foreign teams fighting Ebola should be harnessed to “reboot” devastated health systems, she says. This could involve re-organising local health care providers and helping to re-staff and equip clinics deserted during the epidemic.
Beyond that, the world is at risk from future infectious outbreaks unless healthcare improves in 28 more countries where the situation is similar to that in the three stricken countries before Ebola hit – making these areas vulnerable transmission hubs. Kieny says countries should spend $84 per head to provide the absolute minimum care. Before Ebola hit, Guinea, for example, spent only $7.
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