Ebola has sickened nearly 16,000 people and killed almost 7,000, the World Health Organization announced Friday.
The virus has mainly afflicted the West African nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, with Sierra Leone hardest hit.
Anthony Banbury, the head of the U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, told the Associated Press that his group needs more beds and workers to combat the virus in Sierra Leone.
“We’re concerned that the partners who have signed up to operate the beds won’t be able to operate them in the numbers and timeline really required,” he said.
While the spread of the virus has slowed in Guinea and Liberia, it has dramatically accelerated in Sierra Leone.
Banbury says the group will keep at it until they’ve stopped the virus in its tracks.
“As long as there’s one person with Ebola out there, then the crisis isn’t over and Ebola is a risk to the people of that community, that country, this sub-region, this continent, this world,” he said. “Our goal and what we will achieve is getting it down to zero, but there’s no doubt it’s going to be a long, hard fight.”
The United States is Ebola-free.
