Ebola crisis: Australian doctor Ian Norton welcomes US decision to send troops to West Africa, says situation in Liberia is desperate
An Australian doctor who is treating Ebola patients in Liberia has welcomed the US announcement to send 3,000 troops to help combat the deadly disease.
Dr Ian Norton, chief of foreign medical teams with the World Health Organisation (WHO), said the situation in Liberia was desperate and health workers were in a "race against time".
"The US announcements are very welcome... and certainly what we were looking for. It is important for many of the larger countries to offer man power and logistical support," Dr Norton told the ABC.
The US plan includes sending troops, engineers and medical personnel, building 17 treatment centres with 100 beds each, training thousands of healthcare workers and establishing a military control centre for coordination of the relief effort.
"For Liberia that is the number we asked them to build. These extra 17 units will give us another 1,700 beds so we're talking over 2,000 beds specifically to treat Ebola," Dr Norton said.
"That should be enough in the current estimates but if they don't come soon then they may be behind the curb again.
"To put it in perspective if we don't respond today then three weeks from now in Liberia we will have double the number of cases.
"So if there are 1,000 cases then in three weeks that number will be 2,000 and in two weeks (after that) 4,000 and then 8,000 and then 16,000."
Dr Norton said he understood the fear among health care workers regarding the risks of treating infected patients, but said the right facilities would mitigate that risk.
"There is certainly fear amongst international and national medical staff and that fear is understandable, but the risk is controllable," he said.
"This offer from the US and the building ... can decrease the risk to staff and it's almost negligible with the proper protective equipment and the proper medical procedures and training.
"If you're working in a unit designed specifically for Ebola care, and patients go in one direction and staff have a specific flow and management system, then the risk is negligible.
"There is no doubt that good supportive care and care delivered early in the piece can increase the survival from 10 per cent or less right up to survival rates of 50, 60 to 70 per cent.
"You can survive Ebola if you come to an Ebola treatment facility and you get care."
Doctors in 'race against time'
The Federal Government also announced Australia will provide a further $7 million to support the international response. It brings the Australian total contribution to $8m.
The funds include $2.5m for WHO's response, $2.5m to Médecins Sans Frontières, and an additional $2m to support the UK's delivery of front-line medical services in Sierra Leone.
Dr Norton said despite being hopeful of winning the fight against the disease, the desperation of the local people was overwhelming.
"One that sticks with me from just two days ago... we were just in the final stages of finishing a large 120-bed unit and as we were exiting after a day of work there were 40 patients waiting for admission... so that will tell you some of the desperation among the family members who are bringing people forward for care and there just isn't enough beds at the moment," he said.
"We are in a race against time to build these units."
He said a lot of work still needed to be done and the logistics of building the treatment facilities was staggering.
"Eighty-thousand litres of water per day for a 100-bed unit. We're talking about seven sets of protective equipment per bed, so 700 sets of protective equipment per day. The figures are just astronomical," he said.
"Something like 3 million sets of protective equipment across the three countries over the next six months."
Dr Norton said the risk to neighbouring countries was real and despite steps being put in place to screen people at border crossings, the jungle areas had allowed easy access and heightened the risk of spreading the disease across borders.
"If we don't fight Ebola where it is in these three countries now, the risk of it spreading across the region is very high," he said.
