EBOLA: harrowing scenes in Liberia as doctors warn disease is out of control
As the Ebola outbreak continues to spread in West Africa - the current death toll standing at more than 1,000 - one photographer has bravely travelled to Monrovia, Liberia to chronicle work on the frontline. The pictures, by John Moore, from Getty Images, capture the harrowing scenes of families torn apart by the deadly disease, along with the medical workers battling to save the sick...
International doctors have admitted they don't know the true scale of deaths from the deadly Ebola virus warning the disease is spreading faster than the response.
The group Doctors Without Borders (Medecin Sans Frontieres) have likened the outbreak in west Africa to a state of war and said that the epidemic could last another six months.
Meanwhile, a medical worker on the frontline of tackling the disease in Liberia says response teams are unable to document all the cases erupting as many of the sick are being hidden at home rather than taken to Ebola treatment centres.
He added that an 80-bed treatment centre opened in Liberia's capital Monrovia in recent days and filled up immediately. The next day, dozens more people showed up to be treated.
Meanwhile, he said that experts who are going house-to-house in Kenema, Sierra Leone, in search of infected people are discovering more cases.
Earlier the UN organisation had said the epidemic had been 'vastly' underestimated and that extraordinary measures are needed to contain the disease.
The Geneva-based organisation said in a statement that it was co-ordinating a 'massive scale-up of the international response' in a bid to tackle the spread of the Ebola.
The death toll from the condition has now climbed to 1,069 with most victims in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
The WHO said in the statement: 'The outbreak is expected to continue for some time. WHO’s operational response plan extends over the next several months.
'Staff at the outbreak sites see evidence that the numbers of reported cases and deaths vastly underestimate the magnitude of the outbreak.
'WHO is coordinating a massive scaling up of the international response, marshalling support from individual countries, disease control agencies, agencies within the United Nations system, and others.
'WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan held discussions with a group of ambassadors from Geneva’s United Nations missions. The meeting aimed to identify the most urgent needs within countries and match them with rapid international support.
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