Amid warnings that Africa and the world are falling behind in the race against Ebola, a second US health worker has tested positive.
It is the latest grim news as attempts to get to grips with the deadly virus take on a global dimension.
The United Nations Security Council heard from Anthony Banbury, the head of UNMEER – the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response – that efforts to stop the spread of the disease are inadequate.
The World Health Organisation says the epidemic is spreading in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia and projections show there could be up to 10,000 new cases a week in early December.
The death toll so far in the outbreak, first reported in Guinea in March, has reached 4,447 from a total of 8,914 cases, WHO Assistant Director General Bruce Aylward said.
The WHO says the number of cases in West Africa will exceed 9,000 this week.
“The numbers we need to get behind are 70-70-60,” Aylward told a news conference.
“That number is 70 percent safe burials, 70 percent cases being managed and cared for properly and within 60 days of our start date, which for UNMEER we are taking as the 1st of October.”
The hospital in Texas, which cared for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first patient in the US to be diagnosed with Ebola, now has two infected healthcare workers – both of whom treated the Liberian who has since died.
Nurse Nina Pham, 26, who was the first to test positive, is now said to be doing well.
Authorities in Dallas say more than 70 people are now under observation.
The second US infection was announced amid an ongoing row over whether a lapse in infectious disease protocols took place.
Also read:
Everything you need to know about the Ebola virus
