Part of the reason that ebola has been spreading so quickly out of control is due to the fact that doctors and those best equipped to lead the charge have been, understandably, afraid of getting sick and dying. After this period of horror, the sense of fear seems to be changing and there has been a sudden resurgence in the number of people volunteering to care for the sick and fight the disease in Africa. The new volunteers are joining the fight as organizations such as the World Bank and the Gates Foundation are pouring money into western Africa so that supplies can be bought and so that the US Army can begin building a number of field hospitals so that there is more access to treatment. Even though there is a sudden influx of volunteers, experts are still saying that it will be a long time before all of the field hospitals will be fully staffed to the point that they can work at full efficiency.
One of the reasons that the lack of volunteers this summer is an issue is because of the time that it takes to train volunteers to properly be able to help with ebola while minimizing the danger that they face. A 100-bed hospital needs around 400 staff, of which 40 are doctors and nurses, to run properly and those numbers just aren’t there at all. With 600 new cases of ebola being recorded each week, it will be a long time before the hospitals will be able to adequately face the number of people that are sick. The 600 new cases a week are simply those that are brought to official attention. With the rate doubling every three weeks and with potentially hundreds of other cases going unreported, the fight to stem and then eradicate ebola is going to be long, hard, and more people will die.
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