WHO Calls For Additional HCWs In Ebola-Hit West Africa; Cuba To Send 165 Personnel

News outlets report on the WHO’s call for additional health care workers to respond to Ebola in West Africa, as well as Cuba’s and the Red Cross’s responses to the call.

Reuters: WHO asks for more health workers to fight Ebola as death toll grows
“The number of new Ebola cases in West Africa is growing faster than authorities can manage them, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, renewing a call for health workers from around the world to go to the region to help…” (Kelland/Miles, 9/12).

Associated Press: Cuba sending dozens of doctors to fight Ebola
“Cuba’s health ministry said Friday it is sending more than 160 health workers to help stop the raging Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, providing a much-needed injection of medical expertise in a country where health workers are in short supply…” (Cheng, 9/12).

Forbes: Cuba Responds To Ebola Crisis; Black Market For Convalescent Serum
“Cuba will be sending 63 doctors and 102 nurses, epidemiologists, specialists in infection control, intensive care specialists, and social mobilization officers to set up World Health Organization-funded Ebola clinics in Sierra Leone. The workers will deploy in the beginning of October and stay for six months…” (Kroll, 9/12).

Agence France-Presse: Red Cross to train more volunteers to scale up Ebola fight
“The Red Cross said Thursday it planned to train more than 2,000 extra volunteers to step up its response to the deadly Ebola outbreak ravaging West Africa. … Since the outbreak began at the beginning of the year, IFRC said it had trained some 3,500 volunteers across the three hardest-hit countries, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, and that it planned to push that number to over 5,600…” (9/11).

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