Agencies respond to Ebola outbreak

Church-based organizations are among those responding to—and affected by—the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

The World Health Organization has reported more than 1,200 deaths and 2,200 cases either confirmed or suspected to be caused by Ebola virus disease in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. Preventing spread of the illness requires limiting contact with infected patients as much as possible and “promptly and safely” burying the dead, whose bodies can transmit the virus, the WHO stated. “Currently there is no registered medicine or vaccine against the virus, but there are several experimental options under development.” The organization convened medical ethicists in mid-August to consider using treatment that has not been tested.

“What affects one, affects us all,” wrote Isabel Apawo Phiri, associate general secretary of the World Council of Churches, in a letter to the Liberian Council of Churches in Monrovia, Liberia, intended for other West African Christians also.