Saturday 3 January 2015

UPDATED--CONTAGIOUS#3 (THE EBOLA STORY)

With only 50 physicians in the entire country—one for every 70,000 Liberians—Liberia already faced a health crisis even before the outbreak.[64] In September the US CDC reported that some hospitals had been abandoned while those which were still functioning lacked basic facilities and supplies.[65] In October, the Liberian ambassador in Washington was reported as saying that he feared that his country may be "close to collapse".[64] By 24 October, all of the 15 Liberian districts had reported Ebola cases.[6][66]

In November the rate of new infections in Liberia appeared to be declining. The drop in cases was believed to be related to an integrated strategy combining isolation and treatment with community behaviour change including safe burial practices, case finding and contact tracing[67][68][69] On 13 November, the Liberian president announced the lifting of the state of emergency in the country following the decrease in the number of new cases.[70] 
On 15 December, Liberia started treating patients with serum therapy; as one medical source said, "this will empower local health care systems to become more self-sufficient and better serve their patients during this current epidemic."[71] On December 29th, it was reported that dozens of new cases are developing along the border with Sierra Leone.[72]

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