The two American aid workers who were the first patients to be successfully treated for Ebola in the United States were released Thursday, but the virus continues to spread along the West African coast. According to World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Gregory Hartl, bringing more personnel to the outbreak sites may be the only way to combat the problem.
“Recently, WHO called for $100 billion to find hopefully, actually, hundreds more international staff,” Hartl told HuffPost Live host Josh Zepps. “This is by far the biggest Ebola outbreak that we have ever seen. It is covering large parts of [Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone] and we need many people on the ground.”
Although there are some drugs for the virus in the works, they are still being tested, Hartl emphasized. Instead, he stressed the importance of hands-on specialists, like logisticians, communicators and public health experts.
“There are several experimental treatments and vaccines that are extremely experimental, that have not been tested in humans,” he said. “They will not serve to stop this outbreak, maybe in the future, but again what we need in this outbreak is more boots on the ground."
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