News outlets report on the impact of and responses to the Ebola outbreak on the ground in West Africa.

New York Times: ‘Don’t Touch the Walls’: Ebola Fears Infect an African Hospital
“So many patients, nurses, and health workers have died in the government hospital that many people in this city, a center of the world’s worst Ebola epidemic, see it as a death trap. Now, the wards are empty in the principal institution fighting the disease…” (Nossiter, 8/7).

Reuters: Exclusive: Liberia health system collapsing as Ebola spreads
“The health care system in Liberia is collapsing, hospitals closing down, and medical workers fleeing from the Ebola epidemic, which is poised to worsen, Liberia’s foreign minister said on Thursday…” (Dawson, 8/7).

Washington Post: People are struggling to bury the Ebola dead. Here’s why.
“Twenty-one bodies were awaiting burials when the excavator digging their graves got stuck in the mud. With armed Liberian soldiers standing guard, the highly infectious bodies — which had been transported from a morgue by truck amid the worst Ebola outbreak in history — were forced to wait in the open until a second digger could be hired and transported to the site. The burial site itself was controversial; officials transporting the bodies last week were met by protesters from a local village, who believed the site’s proximity to where they live put them at great risk for infection…” (Ohlheiser, 8/7).