CONAKRY, Guinea — An Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 700 people in West Africa is moving faster than efforts to control the disease, the head of the World Health Organization warned as presidents from the affected countries met Friday in Guinea’s capital.
Dr. Margaret Chan, the WHO’s director-general, said the meeting in Conakry “must be a turning point” in the battle against Ebola, which is sickening people in three African capitals — in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone — for the first time in history. WHO launched a $100 million response plan that includes deploying hundreds more health-care workers.
Medecins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said the WHO pledge “needs to translate to immediate and effective action.” Doctors Without Borders said its teams are overwhelmed with Ebola patients in Sierra Leone and that the situation in Liberia is “dire.”
