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UN delivers its strongest warnings about the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa
The UN's health authority says it will take months and cost close to $500 million to contain the deadly Ebola epidemic in West Africa. It warns up to 20,000 people could become infected. An Australian doctor working in Nigeria says the community is on edge and authorities are doing what they can to ensure the outbreak doesn't escalate further.
ELIZABETH JACKSON: The UN's health authority has delivered its strongest warning yet about the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says that up to 20,000 people could catch the deadly disease.
The World Today has spoken with an Australian doctor in Nigeria, who is working with local authorities to prepare that country's response should the outbreak worsen.
Sarah Sedghi reports.
SARAH SEDGHI: The World Health Organization is warning the worst is yet to come.
Dr Bruce Aylward is from the WHO.
BRUCE AYLWARD: We've talked about the numbers in the past Ebola outbreaks. The total number globally in previous outbreaks we have already outstripped. So 20,000 is the scale that has, I think, not ever been anticipated, but again, that is not saying we expect 20,000 cases, that is not saying we would accept, more importantly, 20,000 cases.
SARAH SEDGHI: The WHO says it will need close to $500 million to deal with the crisis and that it will take months to contain.
It's just announced a strategic plan, but there's an immediate need too, as it seeks to respond to more than 3,000 confirmed cases of Ebola.
So far more than 1,500 people have died.
GAVIN MACGREGOR-SKINNER: A lot of people are saying within their communities that if you put me in the hospital, you put me there to die.
SARAH SEDGHI: Dr Gavin MacGregor-Skinner has just travelled to Nigeria from his base in the United States to help authorities prepare in case the outbreak worsens.
He says the community is afraid.
GAVIN MACGREGOR-SKINNER: People have been seeing for months now the cases, the patients, the people dying, and when it comes to your country, to your city, your town it's quite frightening.
We sat down with about 12 nurses to start to train them intensively and they were doing fantastic in their training but yesterday when we were told a suspected Ebola patient might be coming to the hospital, you could see the fear in their eyes, you could see the concern.
SARAH SEDGHI: He's currently working in Port Harcourt, where a doctor has just died after treating an Ebola patient.
GAVIN MACGREGOR-SKINNER: When we look at the number of hospital staff and health care workers that have succumbed and died from Ebola virus in this outbreak, it just breaks my heart.
When I talk to colleagues, we find that simple mistakes are being made whether it be through fatigue or not being properly trained, and I must say even when we saw the patient yesterday, we were nervous.
I have to admit, I was nervous even though I had all the protective equipment on.
SARAH SEDGHI: In Nigeria six people have died and all cases are connected to an infected man who flew into the country weeks ago.
He died shortly after his arrival but came into contact with many people.
Ebola is a highly infectious disease and Dr Gavin MacGregor-Skinner says the community there is on edge.
GAVIN MACGREGOR-SKINNER: People are quite afraid and they're quite upset and in this brand new isolation ward that we've started to set up, nothing was damaged, nothing was broken but what they did, they came in at night they spray painted over the walls, the gate, the building, 'Do not put the Ebola centre here, no Ebola centre here, go away Ebola.'
SARAH SEDGHI: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea are the worst affected countries, and there are protests outside health clinics in many areas.
Quarantine zones have made it hard to go about daily life and some people rely on alternative health practices, which is worsening the outbreak.
Dr Gavin MacGregor-Skinner says getting the right information out is essential, but can be one of the most difficult tasks.
GAVIN MACGREGOR-SKINNER: Here very much there is a lot of faith, there is a lot of prayer, there's a lot of placing of hands on sick people to try to heal them through prayer, and as we told all the church leaders, we have to use modern evidence-based medicine, in combination with faith and prayer, to ensure that we can help the communities here in Nigeria.
And this is something, this is cultural, this is what they do all the time. It's going to take, it's going to take quite a while to get that message through and be successful.
SARAH SEDGHI: He's optimistic that the outbreak can be contained, but he's also worried about the future of people living in affected communities.
GAVIN MACGREGOR-SKINNER: We're seeing a stigmatisation of Ebola patients and their families and their communities, very similar to what we went through when HIV-AIDS first came to Africa.
When we get a patient into the hospital here, one of the discussions we have is, if this patient survives and recovers, how are we going to get them back into the community, how are we going to educate the community to accept that the patient and the patient's family and all their relatives to come back and live like they did normally?
ELIZABETH JACKSON: Dr Gavin MacGregor-Skinner ending that report from Sarah Sedghi.
Author Sarah Sedghi