Tom Parry reports from the Ebola front line, where the World Health Organisation admits the death toll of 1,145 “underestimates the magnitude of the outbreak”.
Seven days ago Oliver Wilson drove his sick, shivering wife Layson to an isolation clinic for suspected cases of Ebola.
The 33-year-old nurse, knew from her symptoms that she had contracted the world’s most feared virus.
She knew also that she was about to die from the incurable disease.
But she had stopped short of telling Oliver.
And she deliberately didn’t hug their one-year-old son Oliver Junior as she walked alone through the quarantine tape surrounding the tin-roofed hospital unit.
Her fear that she could infect the tot through a drop of sweat or a stray tear was based on sound knowledge.
Yesterday grief-stricken Oliver wept and banged his head against the steering wheel of the family car as he watched Layson’s body chucked unceremoniously on to the back of a truck in a white plastic bag.
He had been denied the chance to say goodbye to his childhood sweetheart.
In a macabre scene, the corpses of seven other Ebola victims – including a six-year-old boy – were loaded on to the flatbed lorry.
I looked on aghast as grimly determined mortuary workers, clad head to toe in protective clothing, tipped Layson’s corpse off a stretcher – like earth from a wheelbarrow.
Here in the hellish Ebola zone of West Africa, the victims’ remains have to be cremated quickly as even the dead are contagious.
This is the heart-breaking drudgery of life in disease-racked Liberia, where the worst outbreak of this violent disease in history claims fresh lives daily.
The World Health Organisation admitted that the official death toll of 1,145 in the region “vastly underestimates the magnitude of the outbreak”.
For Oliver, a former UN aid worker, the swiftness of his beautiful wife’s decline remains impossible to understand.
Speaking through bursts of stifled sobs, he details with amazing clarity how Layson went down with the incredibly contagious Ebola virus.
I talk to Oliver from outside the cab of his 4x4 vehicle where he sits – through fear of getting too near to him.
My instinct would be to offer a sympathetic hand, but I have been told about the risks of getting too close to someone who might have embraced his Ebola-stricken wife 10 days before.
“I’m trying to be strong, but it’s so hard,” Oliver, 36, stammered. “She died on Saturday; yesterday evening.
“She caught Ebola at work, at the Catholic Hospital here in Monrovia. The hospital administrator had got ill.
“He tested positive for Ebola.
“It was my wife’s job to give him an ECG examination, to put the pads on his body.
"She knew she had to put plastic gloves on, but for a few seconds she was touching him with her hands, to help him get off the bed and on to a chair.
"That is how she got it. A few days later, that man died.
“It was on August 3, when we came home from church, that she complained of shivering, of feeling chilly.”
Oliver explained how Layson was determined not to be a burden, and so tried to get better with medicine she bought from a local chemist.
The middle-class couple, who wed in 2007, had always been active, outgoing members of the community.
Four years ago, they used their savings for a dream holiday in the United States, and Layson hankered after another trip abroad.
He proudly showed me a photograph of Layson on his mobile phone.
He snapped her posing in a snowbound street, a treasured memento. Layson desperately didn’t want to be ill.
She entered nursing in 2005, and had been promoted several times to obtain a senior position.
After Oliver lost his job at the UN, she became the family’s breadwinner. Now he has no idea how he will support their son.
“On the Monday evening she said she was too hot,” Oliver continued.
“She wanted cold water on a towel to put on her forehead. By Wednesday she had lost her appetite.
"On Thursday the weakness had got worse and she told me she felt nauseous.
“It was last Saturday that she became really ill. It was our son’s first birthday.
“She slept in the living room because I think she knew what was happening to her.
"She said, ‘Oliver, don’t touch me.’ She couldn’t touch Oliver Junior either, and she had to stop breastfeeding him instantly because it is contagious through all body fluids.
“She was so weak she couldn’t even sing Happy Birthday to our son.”
The symptoms Oliver described chart the classic, rapid downfall in healthy people caused by debilitating Ebola.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said Ebola started with fever, muscle aches, weakness, headaches and sore throat.
The next stage is often characterised by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash and malfunction of the liver and kidneys.
Worst of all, some patients have severe internal and external bleeding and multiple organ failure.
Survival rates are less than 40%, and there is no vaccine or treatment, although a trial is underway in Liberia.
That is why the capital Monrovia is currently gripped by paranoia and suspicion over the spread of the disease.
“I brought her here later that day, eight days ago,” Oliver said, as we wait outside the clinic for his wife’s final journey.
“Within a week she was dead. I never got a chance to say goodbye. I could only speak on the phone.
"The last time we spoke, she told me her heart had stopped beating too fast.
“She said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.’ Now I am here to watch her be carried out in a bag.”
The unemotional professionalism of the Red Cross workers hired to dispose of Ebola bodies is a shocking sight.
For Oliver, it must be unimaginably painful.
Security guards in front of the desperately overcrowded unit continue to chat while the bodies are loaded.
One woman laughed loudly, seemingly oblivious to the grim loading up process taking place behind her.
Throughout Monrovia there are huge advertising hoardings warning people of the dangers.
Yet in the filthy slums, many seem to be going about their Sunday afternoon business as normal.
Torrential rain fell all day, turning the shanty town tracks into a putrid quagmire.
It must be the ideal breeding ground for a virus so contagious a quick touch on the arm from a sufferer is apparently enough to spread it.
By the time you know you should have been more careful, it might already be too late.
Wracked by the loss of his beloved wife, Oliver also feared that he too might have Ebola.
Incubation can take up to 21 days. “I might have it,” Oliver admitted.
“I feel fine now, but it is very likely. Until she got Ebola, I didn’t understand how scary it is.
"Now I’m terrified for our son too.”
As the back panel on the truck carrying Layson’s body was slammed shut, Oliver shuddered.
A disease he had not heard of six months ago has ruined his life in less than a fortnight.
据英国《镜报》记者汤姆•派瑞(Tom Parry)8月17日报道，世界卫生组织承认“严重低估埃博拉疫情影响性”，目前该病已造成1145人死亡。
10日，奥利弗•威尔逊（Oliver Wilson）的妻子劳森（Layson）全身哆嗦，疑似感染埃博拉病毒，奥利弗遂将其送往隔离监护区。
33岁的护士劳森根据发病症状判断自己可能感染了世界上最可怕的病毒埃博拉。她深谙自己即将死于该不治之症。然而，她决定不告诉丈夫奥利弗。
当她独自走过铁皮屋顶医院附近的隔离带时，她不敢拥抱一岁大的儿子小奥利弗。
这种恐惧源于其健全的医疗知识，哪怕只是一滴汗水或眼泪都有可能将疾病传染给她的孩子。
16日，当奥利弗看到妻子劳森的遗体被装入白色塑料袋并被粗鲁扔进卡车车厢时，他心碎欲绝，泪流满面，用力将自己的头撞在家庭汽车的方向盘上。
他始终无法获得许可去见青梅竹马恋人的最后一面。
这是一个令人毛骨悚然的场景：七具埃博拉病毒患者遗体被运往平板卡车，其中包括一名六岁男孩。
严肃坚定的殓房工人穿着从头到脚的防护服，将劳森遗体从担架卸下，像是从独轮手推车卸下沙土一般。这一幕使我看得目瞪口呆。
在地狱般的西非埃博拉疫区，病毒感染者的遗体会传染病毒，因此必须尽快将其遗体火化。
在疫情蔓延的利比里亚（Liberia），殓房工人是一份令人心碎的苦差。这场史上最严峻无情的疾病正日复一日地吞噬着鲜活的生命。
世界卫生组织承认“严重低估埃博拉疫情影响性”，目前该病已造成1145人死亡。
前联合国救援工作者奥利弗至今无法接受，他与美丽妻子转瞬阴阳相隔。
他不住地哽咽，详细地描述了劳森如何感染极具传染性的埃博拉病毒。
奥利弗坐在他4X4的车子里。我在驾驶室外与他交谈，避免太靠近他。
出于人的天性，我本想向他伸出同情之手，但先前曾有人提醒过我靠近奥利弗有一定风险，因为他可能在10天前曾拥抱感染埃博拉病毒的妻子。
“我努力坚强起来，但那太难了。”36岁的奥利弗结结巴巴地说。她是周六去世的，就在昨晚。”
“她在蒙罗维亚（Monrovia）天主教医院工作，在那里感染了埃博拉病毒。医院负责人之前已感染病毒。”
“他在埃博拉检测中呈阳性反应。”
“我妻子的工作是为他进行心电图检查，将仪器放在他身上。”
“她知道自己得戴上塑料手套，但由于要帮助病人下床坐到椅子上，有几秒钟她的手会直接接触到病人身体。”
“这就是她感染病毒的过程。几天后，那个病人去世了。”
“8月3日，我们从教堂回到家里，她开始抱怨觉得冷，还浑身哆嗦。”
奥利弗还谈到，劳森如何决定不成为他人负担，所以从当地药房购买药品，希望尽快好转。
2007年，这对中产阶级夫妻结婚，他们一直是社区活跃外向的成员。
四年前，夫妻俩用存款实现了美国度假梦，此后劳森盼望能再一次到国外旅行。
他自豪地向我展示手机里一张劳森的照片。
在大雪覆盖的街道，他抓拍了一张劳森的身影，这是极为珍贵的纪念。劳森极度渴望自己从未感染病毒。
2005年，劳森进入护理行业，此后多次获得晋升，担任了高层人员。
奥利弗失去联合国的工作后，劳森成为家庭主要经济来源。如今，奥利弗不知道该如何抚养他们的儿子。
“4日夜晚，她说觉得很热。”奥利弗继续说道。
“她想要把冷水把毛巾弄湿，敷在额头上。6日，她已经毫无食欲。”
“7日，她的身体变得更加虚弱，她跟我说觉得恶心想吐。”
“9日，她真的生病了，那天是我们儿子的一周岁生日。”
“她睡在客厅，我想那是因为她知道即将发生什么事。”
“她说：‘奥利弗，别碰我。’她也不能接触小奥利弗，且不得不立刻停止给他喂奶，因为所有体液都可能传染病毒。”
“她十分虚弱，甚至没有力气为我们的儿子唱生日歌。”
奥利弗描述的症状具有典型性，埃博拉病毒能使健康人在短时间迅速变得虚弱。
欧洲疾病防控中心（the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control）表示，埃博拉病毒感染初期，会出现发烧、肌肉酸痛、身体虚弱、头痛和喉咙痛等症状。中期常出现呕吐、腹泻、皮疹、肝功能失调和肾功能失调 等症状。在末期，患者会出现严重的内出血、外出血和多器官功能衰竭。
尽管有人在利比里亚进行相关试验，但目前该病无任何疫苗或治愈方法，康复率低于40%。
因此，首都蒙罗维亚近日因疫情蔓延而陷入疑神疑鬼气氛中。
“9日那天晚些时候，我把她带到这儿。”奥利弗说道。他正在诊所门外等候，目送妻子最后一程。
“短短一周，她就撒手人寰了。我没有任何机会见她最后一面，只能在电话中与她交谈。”
“最后一次通电时，她告诉我心跳恢复正常了。”
“她说：‘别担心，我会康复的。如今，我却在这儿看着她被装进塑料袋里被抬走。’”
红十字会所雇佣处理埃博拉病毒感染者遗体的工作人员表现出冷静沉着的敬业精神，着实令人震惊。
对奥利弗而言，这无疑是不可想象的丧妻之痛。
当工作人员忙着搬运遗体时，前方的保安人员继续交谈。一名女子喧哗大笑，看起来很明显是针对她身后残忍的运输遗体过程。
蒙罗维亚随处可见巨型围墙广告标语，警示民众埃博拉疫情危险性。
然而，在肮脏的贫民窟，许多人似乎即将开始周日下午的生意，如同往常一样。
暴雨持续了一整天，棚户区变成了散发腐臭的沼泽地。这必定成为埃博拉病毒繁殖传播的理想温床。埃博拉病毒极具传染性，即使只是碰了一下病人的手臂，也足以被感染。也许等你发现该小心谨慎时，一切都已无法挽回。
奥利弗饱受折磨，他不仅失去了心爱的妻子，而且害怕自己也可能感染了埃博拉病毒。该病潜伏期可长达21天。“我可能已经得病了。”奥利弗坦诚地说道。“我目前感觉良好，但很可能已经得病。直到劳森感染病毒，我才知道这病有多可怕。现在，我非常害怕儿子也得病了。”
当载着劳森遗体的卡车后板“砰”的一声被关上时，奥利弗忍不住战栗发抖。
半年前，奥利弗甚至不曾听说过埃博拉。如今，埃博拉却在短短两周内摧毁了他的家庭。