Liberia must wait weeks or months for new Ebola centres: WHO

Reuters
Health workers surround an Ebola patient who escaped from quarantine from Monrovia's Elwa hospital, in the centre of Paynesville in this still image taken from a September 1, 2014 video. REUTERS/Reuters TV

GENEVA (Reuters) - The Ebola response in Liberia, the country worst hit by the outbreak, will focus on community-level care units since new bed spaces are unlikely to be ready for weeks or months, World Health Organization Assistant Director General Bruce Aylward said on Tuesday. The WHO still has a goal to "bend the curve" in total Ebola case numbers across West Africa within three months, but some areas may be free of the disease sooner, he said. "You definitely want to get Nigeria and Senegal obviously done quickly. In some capitals - Freetown, Conakry - we should be able to get those free in the near term. Guinea should be able to get most of the country free in the very near term as well," Aylward said. (Reporting by Tom Miles, editing by Stephanie Nebehay)