Health services, economies overwhelmed in Ebola-hit Africa

Health workers in Liberia reported being overwhelmed by new Ebola cases today, as the epidemic was blamed for shattering economic growth in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has predicted an "exponential increase" in infections across west Africa, and warned that Liberia will face thousands of new cases in the coming weeks.
"We are overwhelmed. The patients keep coming in (huge) numbers. Yesterday we received up to 30 patients," Sophie Jane, a spokeswoman for Doctors Without Borders told AFP at the aid agency's Ebola unit in Monrovia.
The WHO upped the death toll yesterday to 2,296 out of 4,293 cases in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria. Nearly half of all infections had come in the past 21 days, it said.

Sierra Leone, which has reported some 500 deaths from 1,400 cases, said the crisis had devastated its economy, with growth pared back to single digits for the first time since the country's mining boom started in 2011.
Finance Minister Kaifala Samura told reporters in the capital Freetown growth had slowed to seven percent on-year since the country registered its first cases in May.

"Businesses are shutting down, the foreign exchange rate is no longer in our favour, many airlines are not flying our routes, prices of essential commodities have soared (and) revenue is dropping while Ebola continues to spread," he said.

Sierra Leone, one of the world's poorest countries where half the population lives on less than $1.25 (0.97 euros) a day, is still struggling to recover from a ruinous 11-year civil war which ended in 2002.
But the economy has boomed in recent years, with gross domestic product (GDP) expanding by 15.2 percent in 2012 -- the fastest growth in sub-Saharan Africa -- driven largely by its rapidly expanding mining sector.
Economic growth in Sierra Leone hasn't been confined to single figures since 2011.
The World Bank had forecast the economy would expand by 14.1 percent this year, up from 13.3 percent in 2013, before the Ebola epidemic hit.

The bank also predicted the epidemic will wipe a full percentage point off growth in Guinea this year, from 4.5 percent to 3.5 percent.