Health workers dispatched to a neighborhood in Liberia’s capital Monrovia removed the bodies of two Ebola victims who could go no further and dropped dead on the street four days ago in the Clara Town neighborhood.  No one would take them to hospital.  No one wanted to pick them up for proper disposal.

And it’s not clear if that would have helped.  Monrovia’s overcrowded and understaffed Elwa Hospital last week turned away suspected Ebola cases.  Without isolation, there’s a good chance that the infection – which is lethal in about 60 percent of cases – could spread.  The manpower problem got worse last week when international volunteer groups pulled out.

Two of the most extreme cases are those of US Doctor Kent Brantly and aid worker Nancy Writebol, both of whom contracted the Ebola virus.  Brantly was brought to the US in a special airplane with an isolation tent, and taken to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for treatment.  The same airplane is going back to pick up Writebol on Tuesday.  They are the first Ebola patients on US soil, and it’s hoped that Emory’s proximity and history of cooperation with the US Centers for Disease Control will lead to increased experience to combat Ebola.

The manpower shortage will ease a little, as the United States has announced plans to send at least 50 health care experts to West Africa to fight the Ebola Outbreak.  Ebola has killed at least 826 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.