Authorities are having trouble figuring out how many
more people are getting Ebola in Liberia and Sierra Leone and where the
hotspots are in those countries, according to the UN's top Ebola
official in West Africa.
This is harming efforts to get control of the outbreak, Anthony Banbury said on Tuesday.
Over the past week, the US said, Banbury met the presidents of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, where Ebola has infected at least 10,000 people and killed roughly half of them, as he focuses on adapting an operational framework for international anti-Ebola efforts.
"The challenge is good information, because information helps tell us where the disease is, how it's spreading and where we need to target our resources," Banbury told the Associated Press by phone from the Ghanaian capital of Accra, where the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, or UNMEER, is based.
Health experts say the key to stopping Ebola is breaking the chain of transmission by tracing and isolating those who have had contact with Ebola patients or victims. Health-care workers cannot do that if they do not know where new cases are emerging.
"And unfortunately, we don't have good data from a lot of areas. We don't know exactly what is happening," Banbury, the UNMEER chief, said.
He said he is hoping for a new approach in Liberia as the UN and its partners work to improve the capacity of communities to safely bury victims.
This is harming efforts to get control of the outbreak, Anthony Banbury said on Tuesday.
Over the past week, the US said, Banbury met the presidents of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, where Ebola has infected at least 10,000 people and killed roughly half of them, as he focuses on adapting an operational framework for international anti-Ebola efforts.
"The challenge is good information, because information helps tell us where the disease is, how it's spreading and where we need to target our resources," Banbury told the Associated Press by phone from the Ghanaian capital of Accra, where the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, or UNMEER, is based.
Health experts say the key to stopping Ebola is breaking the chain of transmission by tracing and isolating those who have had contact with Ebola patients or victims. Health-care workers cannot do that if they do not know where new cases are emerging.
"And unfortunately, we don't have good data from a lot of areas. We don't know exactly what is happening," Banbury, the UNMEER chief, said.
He said he is hoping for a new approach in Liberia as the UN and its partners work to improve the capacity of communities to safely bury victims.