‘Only way to control is through rapid response on massive scale’.
The current outbreak of Ebola in West Africa is a “perfect storm” that requires a massive and immediate international response to prevent it from developing into a global pandemic, warns Dr. Peter Piot, the co-discoverer of the Ebola virus.
“There are now five affected West African countries: Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and most recently, Senegal,” Piot warns in an editorial published in Science magazine.
Piot is director and professor of Global Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
He argues the outbreak is the result of dysfunctional health services hampered by decades of war, low public trust in government and Western medicine, traditional beliefs, denials of the existence of the virus and burial practices that include contact with Ebola-infected corpses.
He expresses alarm at the rapid rate at which the Ebola virus is advancing within the affected West African countries, with the threat the virus could expand globally.
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