埃博拉病毒扼杀西非国家的经济增长

Ebola has struck at some of the world’s fastest growing economies. Sierra Leone, for example, was forecast double digit GDP gains this year. But the virus is eating into those numbers and making life more difficult - and expensive - for those dealing with this emergency.

It’s killed more people in Liberia than anywhere else. And in the capital Monrovia, Ebola is killing trade - especially for tactile businesses such as hairdressing and skincare.

"Since this Ebola crisis, things have gone bad with us, especially we that are in the field of cosmetology. We are losing customers. Customers are not coming like before," said Lorpu Fahn, a cosmetologist of Bleder Hair Gallery.

"Before the Ebola crisis could come, I used to have a lot of customers here. Especially on the weekend, the place used to be so packed. Sometimes I used to go home around 11pm. But since the Ebola crisis, round 6:00pm or 5:00pm, I’ll go home," said Bleder Wesseh, owner of the Bleder Hair Gallery.

Many international airlines have suspended flights to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. And with most borders closed, these countries are now increasingly isolated. It’s hitting everyone from governments to grocers. Liberia estimates the disease cost $12 million dollars between April and June alone.

Guinea predicts the crisis will shave 1% off its growth - that’s at least half a billion dollars of output. And as blockades limit supplies food and medicine, prices are shooting up - sanitary equipment in Sierra Leone reportedly increasing by 200 percent.

"The economy was projected to grow by 11.3 per cent in 2014. Now that is very difficult to achieve. The best we can do is perhaps seven or eight, at most nine percent.

Tourism is a fast-growing sector in Sierra Leone. Because of the Ebola outbreak, investors and visitors are now scared away. So most of the hotels now, the occupancy is very low; most restaurants are not doing good business," said Alimamy Bangura, Director of Sierra Leone Government Economics Policy Unit.

The World Health Organization is encouraged by one patient in Nigeria making a full recovery - and no new cases have been diagnosed there in the past few days. But it warns this global health emergency is still not under control.