"The disease is out of control ... if we don't fight and contain this in Africa we will be fighting to contain this around the world," Ken Isaacs, vice president of program and government relations for Christian aid organization Samaritan's Purse told the US Congress.
According to CNA, Mr Isaacs rebuked the international community for neglecting the initial outbreak of Ebola in West Africa and urged the congress to take the disease seriously in order to contain it.
He told members of Congress August 7, that the world was comfortable allowing just a few relief agencies to shoulder the burden of the disease when it broke out in three countries.
"The international response to the disease has been a failure... it took two Americans getting the disease in order for the international community and the United States to take serious notice of the largest outbreak of the disease in history," said Ken Isaacs.
The World Health Organization (WHO) stated that Ebola can kill up to 90 percent of those infected. The current outbreak has roughly a 60 percent mortality rate.
A Spanish missionary priest, Fr Miguel Pajares, 75, who contracted the Ebola virus while working in Liberia died on August 12, despite being air lifted to Madrid for treatment.
The priest and a nun were flown to Spain on August 7. Both worked at St Joseph's hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. A Congolese nun and director of the hospital Patrick Nshamdze also passed away after contracting the virus. The hospital has since been closed due to the outbreak.
Two American medical missionaries working with Samaritan's Purse - Dr. Kent Brantly and Nurse Nancy Writebol who also contracted the disease while working in an Ebola care centre in Liberia were earlier flown to the United States to receive treatment.
Currently there is no known cure for the Ebola virus, but the World Health Organization (WHO), through its panel of medical ethics experts ruled on August 12 backed the use of experimental Ebola drugs in containing the West Africa outbreak.
The outbreak in West Africa has spread across Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. The World Health Organization has confirmed that the epidemic has killed more than 1000 people, and infected more than 1,700.
Catholic Information Service for Africa
Nairobi
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