The charity Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) has told the BBC that Liberia’s medical services have been completely overwhelmed by the Ebola outbreak.
The MSF co-ordinator in Liberia said official figures were “under-representing the reality”, and that the health system was “falling apart”.
Nearly 1,000 people have died and 1,800 have become infected in West Africa.
Meanwhile, neighbouring Guinea has denied earlier reports that it had sealed its borders.
On Saturday Liberian police broke up a protest against the government’s response.
The Ebola outbreak – the worst ever – is centred on Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, but has spread to other countries in recent months.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that the virus was a global health emergency.
The outbreak has killed almost 1,000 peopleThe MSF co-ordinator for Liberia, Lindis Hurum, told the BBC: “Our capacity is stretched beyond anything that we ever done before in regards to ebola response.”
She said five of the biggest hospitals in the capital Monrovia had closed for more than a week.
“Some of them have now started to re-open but there are other hospitals in other counties that are just abandoned by the staff.
“We are definitely seeing the whole health care system that is falling apart.”
‘Inaccurate’ information
On Saturday demonstrators in Liberia blocked a highway, saying authorities had not been collecting the bodies of some victims.
The army was then deployed to restrict movement, particularly from the worst-affected provinces to the capital.
In Guinea, the health minister on Saturday said the borders with Liberia and Sierra Leone had been closed to prevent infected people crossing into the country.
However, state television later said: “Guinea has not closed its borders with Sierra Leone or with Liberia. It’s rather that we have taken health measures at the border posts.”
A government source told Reuters that the minister who made the original announcement had not been in possession of accurate information.
The Ebola virus was first discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976. It is transmitted between humans through bodily fluids.
Animals such as fruit bats carry the virus, which can be transmitted to humans through contact with blood or consumption of bushmeat.
Source: BBC