MOSCOW, September 25 (RIA Novosti) – The spread of Ebola is growing in Liberia via the infection among family members in their homes as there are not enough treatment centers for the virus' victims in the capital Monrovia, according to The New York Times.
Daily, teams of body collectors retrieve from six to a few dozen bodies from homes, with hospital beds overflowing. After a body has been collected, it is brought to a crematorium.
Entire families are dying in their homes in the capital of Monrovia, as they find themselves unable to gain admission to the city’s overcrowded treatment facilities.
But the shortage of medical centers is not the only reason the virus is spreading within households. Some people do not trust the government and the assistance it provides, and often lie about the cause of death of a family member, thus bolstering the contagion within families.
According to the newspaper, only 18 percent of Ebola victims receive treatment in hospitals or other medical facilities. Such measures help reduce the spread of the virus by isolating the infected from the rest of the population.
More than 2,450 people have died in the current Ebola outbreak, the first in West Africa. It began in southern Guinea in February and spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. The World Health Organization (WHO) says it could infect some 20,000 people before it is brought under control.
