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Calls for Sweden to increase Ebola help

TT/The Local/ms
TT/The Local/ms - [email protected]
Calls for Sweden to increase Ebola help
Doctors in Oslo where an Ebola victim is being treated. Photo: TT

There are calls for Sweden to offer more support to help combat the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, as Swedish doctors closely monitor the first confirmed Ebola case in neighbouring Norway.

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International aid charity MSF is among the groups that has called on the Swedish government to step up its help with the outbreak.
 
"In this crisis, it is not enough to open your wallet. Sweden also needs to provide workers on the ground," MSF President Monika Oswald wrote in Swedish newspaper Dagbladet on Wednesday. 
 
His comments have been backed by Marc Sprenger, Director of the EU's disease control agency, ECDC, which has its headquarters in Solna in Stockholm.
 
"There is no time to lose. I completely agree with those who call for large and rapid action on the ground in West Africa. That's where the work needs to be done," he told Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. 
 
Sprenger said be believed US estimates that the number of deaths from Ebola may reach a million by the end of the year.
 
But he told the paper that it was "out of the question" that Europe would be hit hard by the epidemic.
 
"The EU Is very well prepared. It is well organized in all EU countries. Everyone is aware of the threat, they know what to do and are prepared. I am quite sure that we will be able to control the disease," he added.
 
Meanwhile Swedish medical officials are closely following the case of a Norwegian doctor who was infected with the Ebola virus while she was working in Sierra Leone.
 
She was flown back to Oslo on Tuesday and Norwegian officials said she was being treated in an isolation ward.
 
 
 
"What will be interesting is to share experiences on the care that is given to the patient. How did they plan and is there something they could have improved on? We will be asking about that," Doctor David Ekqvist from Linköping University Hospital in Sweden told Sveriges Radio.
 
The Ebola epidemic in west Africa has so far claimed nearly 3,500 lives. Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia are the worst affected areas.
 
 
 

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