“We’re fighting a forest fire with spray bottles.”
That comes from a health care worker in Sierra Leone who is among the overwhelmed professionals trying to contain a raging Ebola epidemic that poses a global threat.
How many times must that desperate message be repeated before the world steps up and sends enough money, supplies and civilian and medical teams to West Africa to contain the disease?
Because so far, not even the most professional, candid and unified pleas for help have evoked the scope of response necessary to keep the disease from ravaging the continent and perhaps moving to others.
Thus far, international donors have given nearly $52 million to support Ebola response efforts, according to United Nations figures.
As of last week, the U.S. government had anted up $19.6 million of that, according to figures compiled by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
However, the World Health Organization says $490 million is needed. The U.N. puts the figure at $600 million.
The commitments by country, compiled by USAID, show that the U.S. is far and away the largest donor.
But this nation can and should do more, not only in committing more aid, but in pressuring other developed nations to help.
This lethal hemorrhagic virus is spreading rapidly and it’s only a matter of time before it is carried well beyond the impoverished regions of Africa where it has killed more than 1,900 people.
Along with money, trained medical teams are needed. And expanded isolation wards and mobile laboratories.
In an . last week, Doctors Without Borders president Joanne Liu said the deployment of a few experts is not enough. For the record, her organization is stretched to its limits in shouldering a burden few others are willing or able to take on.
“States with the required capacity have a political and humanitarian responsibility to come forward and offer a desperately needed, concrete response to the disaster unfolding in front of the world’s eyes,” .
The situation in West Africa is grave and becoming more so by the day. There can be no more delay in dispatching the heavy equipment to put out this fire.
