Ebola Fight Hit as Aid Groups Pull Workers From West Africa

Some medical charities are withdrawing Western workers from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, weakening local health-care systems in the West African countries hit hardest by the Ebola outbreak, reports The New York Times.

While international aid groups and wealthy governments have ramped up financial assistance and supply shipments to the region, medical charities such as Heartt and the Wellbody Alliance—wrestling with concerns over staffers’ health and safety as the virulent disease and associated civil unrest spread—have sent American doctors and volunteers home.

The departures point up the daunting practical issues the countries face in battling the outbreak. There are fewer than 250 doctors left in Liberia, which has a population of 4 million. “It’s certainly not in line with our values, because it’s just such a glaring inequality,” said Raphael Frankfurter, executive director of the Wellbody Alliance, which has 160 Liberian staffers still in place. But he added that the region is “a very scary place to get sick right now.”