The number of Ebola cases is surging in Sierra Leone due to a lack of treatment centers, the United Nations said, while scarcity of food may also be forcing some people to leave quarantined areas, risking further spread of the virus.
The warning by the U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) came as Sierra Leone's deputy minister of health said Ebola had so badly damaged confidence in the West African country's health system that many people were dying from other diseases as the sick refused to come to clinics for treatment.
Some 4,818 people have died of Ebola, mostly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and neighboring Guinea, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.