Ebola Outbreak News 2015: Cases Rise In West Africa As Virus Wipes Out 20 Percent Of Sierra Leone's Surgeons

The World Health Organization has revealed that new cases of the Ebola virus have risen for the first time this year on the three most affected West African countries – Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

At the same time, Sierra Leone has disclosed that 20 percent, or about 500, of its surgeons have died from the epidemic since it began last year, according to a January report by the W.H.O. The world health body said the continuing deaths of health care workers will have devastating implications for the long-term health of the people of Sierra Leone as well as those from other Ebola-ravaged countries in Africa.

Sierra Leone reported 80 new confirmed cases in the week that ended Feb. 1, higher than the 65 cases in the previous week, according to the W.H.O., according to a Bloomberg report last Thursday. There were 39 cases in Guinea from 30, and five in Liberia from four.

The upward shift in the number of cases highlights the concerns of public health workers that the virus will return if the effort to contain it abates.

Remote areas will be harder for aid workers to reach as the wet season nears, the W.H.O. stated. While some communities still resist help, the virus continues to fan out to more areas of Guinea.

Sierra Leone's western part, including the capital Freetown and the Port Loko district, still suffers from "intense transmission," the world health body said.

Meanwhile, there are less than 10 remaining surgeons for around six million people in Sierra Leone amid the battle against Ebola, Scientific American reported last month.

Over 800 health care workers have been infected with the virus in the hot zone while almost 500 have died since the start of the epidemic, the Journal said, citing a W.H.O. report.

According to the W.H.O., surgery, called the "'neglected component' of healthcare," can be used to treat 11 percent of the disease burden worldwide.

With the death of hundreds of surgeons in Sierra Leone, the surviving surgeons have been frozen by fear of contracting the deadly disease, considering the chances of getting the virus are 100 percent higher for doctors than the public at large.

In Sierra Leone, 25 percent of deaths could be averted with surgery. Around 1.5 million people in the country need surgical consultations, mostly for burn injuries and wounds.

Sierra Leone's public health and medical infrastructure, however, has already been devastated by decades of civil war, making it vulnerable to epidemics.

Volunteer surgeons continue to work in Sierra Leone but only for a few months at a time.

Sierra Leone also faces the problem of brain drain as some of its doctors seek employment in other countries not suffering from the Ebola plague and where they can have a better income.

"I want to retire soon," 60-year-old Sierra Leone doctor Thaim Kamara, who is also worried about his sick mother, told the Scientific American. "But I don't think I can. Some of the eight [remaining surgeons] have actually retired but they come back to work because we desperately need them."