Ebola claims 678 lives in Sierra Leone

Ebola has claimed 678 lives in Sierra Leone, officials in the West African country's capital Freetown reported on Sunday. The figure is a significant increase on the 557 deaths the health ministry reported the day before.

Last week, Sierra Leone communicated to the World Health Organization (WHO) that there had been 575 Ebola deaths and 48 more cases where Ebola may have been the cause of death - a total of 632.

The figures have, however, caused some confusion because the health ministry reported 557 deaths on Saturday, implying that there were 121 more cases between Saturday and Sunday. The numbers have not yet been verified by the WHO.

In all, the WHO has verified 3,431 Ebola-related deaths in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Out of these, 2,069 have died in Liberia alone because of the infection which causes severe bleeding, fever and diarrhea.

West Africa needs more help

Meanwhile, Liberia's ambassador to Germany, Ethel Davis, called on Monday for more contributions to stop the disease from spreading and said that "if the virus were not stopped, it would cross the borders of countries dealing with the infection."

Speaking in Berlin, Davis said that West Africa needed more help or else it "would be lost" without any assistance to combat the tropical fever.

German aid organization ISAR has constructed quarantine stations in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, with facilities to treat 44 patients infected with the Ebola virus. However, ISAR chief Thomas Laackmann told German news agency DPA that more needs to be done. "Even now, patients are being sent back from hospitals and people are dying on the streets every day," he said.

Donations not forthcoming

Donations from the German public to combat Ebola have not been easy to come by. Manuela Rossbach of the aid organization Aktion Deutschland Hilft lamented meager collections of only 90,000 euros ($113,000) compared to more generous contributions for other catastrophes.

The German government is also planning to airlift supplies from Senegal to Ebola-affected countries. The aid would include medicines and supplies worth 17 million euros. German soldiers have also been asked to volunteer to help in Ebola-affected areas.

Aid organization ASB has also begun a project aimed at Ebola prevention and creating awareness about the virus in Gambia, which is vulnerable to the disease because of its proximity to Senegal and because of its lack of medical supplies.

mg/nm (dpa, AFP, EPD)