The Ebola rate in Sierra Leone has increased to more than 20 deaths per day, according to a lawmaker from the western area of the country.  Authorities are struggling to keep up with the collection of corpses from homes in the western area – alarming, because before this it was the eastern area of Sierra Leone that was worst-affected.

The situation remains dire, with a death toll conservatively estimated at more than 4,500 lives lost.  Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia will need 19,000 doctors and nurses by December to fight the epidemic.  Only 69 have arrived from the international community, and most of them are from Cuba which is getting ready to send 91 more.  1,000 vehicles are needed; only 69 have arrived.  The three nations need 500 burial teams to ensure than infected corpses don’t lay out in the open, spreading the disease; only 50 are on the ground now, and it’s not clear who will pay them.

And all of the healthcare problems that existed before the epidemic haven’t gone away.

“The focus, rightly so, has been to set up treatment centers,” said Medecins Sans Frontieres liaison officer Kris Torgeson.  “But if you have people coming to them with malaria, labor complications or other health needs, there are currently no hospitals or clinics to safely refer them.”

Food crises loom over the region, because farmers are abandoning their fields.  The UN International Fund for Agricultural Development is warning an uncontrolled epidemic will “lead to a hunger crisis of epic proportions.”

Schools are closing and immunization campaigns have been suspended for the duration.  The Ebola Epidemic is wiping out any gains made in these countries that were set back by decades of civil war and strife.  In fact, it’s making things even worse than war in some areas.