Military doctor in Sierra Leone pleads 'we need help'

The Ebola treatment centre near Waterloo is the only such facility currently operating in the whole of western Sierra Leone.

There are 120 beds but only the staff to cope with 90 patients. That’s serving a population of 1.3 million people.

Just since we arrived on Sunday a further 100 cases have been confirmed in this area.

A new British facility at Kerry Town may be operational early next month, but Colonel Foday Sahr says they need more.

He tells me, "It’s not enough, definitely I think we need something between 750-1000 beds for western area … we need help, we need help.”

At present they have a tenth of the beds they need to treat Ebola in western Sierra Leone.

The international response is picking up pace, but there is a desperate need for more equipment, more trained staff and more facilities.

And time is running out. The virus is still spreading at an alarming rate.

More than 9,000 cases across West Africa and 5,000 dead. But the true figures may be much, much higher than that.

The treatment centre we filmed in today is doing an excellent job; staff here have cut the mortality rate to just 23%.

But for the vast majority of new cases there is no chance of getting treatment.

The reality is they are being turned away from hospitals and left to die.