The
Ebola outbreak threatens to become a political crisis that could
unravel years of effort to stabilise West Africa, a think tank has
warned.
The world’s largest outbreak of Ebola has caused 2,811 deaths so far, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Meanwhile, a team of health workers in Guinea has been attacked.
The
International Federation of the Red Cross said they were collecting
bodies believed to be infected with Ebola in western Guinea.
One Red Cross worker is recovering after being wounded in the neck, it said.
Last week,
an eight-member team trying to raise awareness about Ebola was killed in
the south-east of the country by villagers suspicious of official
attempts to combat the disease.
Twenty-seven
suspects have been arrested over their murders, Guinea’s Justice
Minister Cheick Sacko said, AFP news agency reports.
On Tuesday,
the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned that Ebola infections
could treble to 20,000 by November if efforts to tackle the outbreak
were not stepped up.
However,
Francis Dove Edwin, a member of Sierra Leone’s presidential task force
dealing with Ebola, said much progress had been made in curbing the
outbreak.
Patients were now being isolated and quarantined and from “quarantine you have eradication”, Mr Dove told BBC Focus on Africa.
