Monrovia: Global aid agency Doctors Without Borders says it has rejected cash for the Ebola response from Australia, asking the country instead to deploy desperately needed medical teams to west Africa.
Canberra offered $2.5 million, said the charity, known by its French initials MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres).
Australia and Ebola
The government is exploring options to enable Australian health professionals to help fight the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.
But MSF said it had reached its logistical limitations and couldn’t increase its assistance in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the three countries most affected by the epidemic.
“MSF simply does not have the capacity to do this job alone. We are already turning people away from our clinics which have been stretched beyond over capacity for weeks,” it said in a statement.
“Australia must stop making excuses to join the fight against Ebola.”
The agency said even a small number of Australian healthcare workers would have a “very significant impact”.
“Even a dozen trained staff who could oversee local teams to manage an isolation centre, help case finding and outbreak control measures would save thousands of lives today,” MSF said.
Paul McPhun, the executive director of MSF Australia, warned the number of infected was doubling every three weeks.
A woman suspected of being infected with Ebola is assisted by health workers to an ambulance for treatment in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Photo: New York Times
“These are shocking statistics, yet still countries like Australia with the capacity to make a real difference on the ground are looking at each other to take responsibility, and are refusing to send their own personnel to help,” he said.
“Facing this reality today, it is unthinkable that Australia is waiting for an invitation from the World Health Organisation (WHO) to act.”
Relatives of infected people wait for news at the entrance of the high risk area in Monrovia.
The outbreak of Ebola, the worst on record, has infected 6500 people and killed almost half, according to the WHO, although the real death rate, taking into account the delay between reporting infection and death, is likely to be much higher.
AFP