Floor ‘splashed with blood’ as health staff among ebola victims

As the largest ebola outbreak in history tears through rural villages and towns in Africa, and — for the first time ever — major cities which are overcrowded and ill- prepared, eye-witnesses recount the sheer horror at ground level.

Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, the countries at the centre of the outbreak, are poor and decentralised, with scant healthcare resources to help contain the disease, which kills the majority of people infected. At last count, there were 1,603 suspected and confirmed cases and 887 deaths.

In The New Yorker, Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone, describes the harrowing situation in Sierra Leone, which has the highest number of suspected cases, at 646.