As Ebola outbreak continues to ravage countries in West Africa, health officials in Sierra Leone recorded 121 deaths in a single day. Over the weekend, the Guardian reported that five new people are being infected with Ebola every hour in the country.

International response to the epidemic was slow to start: President Obama committed 3,000 troops to the continent last month. But the virus is spreading so quickly that medical experts, including the CDC and World Health Organization, have predicted that millions could be infected by early next year unless efforts are dramatically ramped up.

Bogging down relief efforts, the New York Times reports, are political disputes. Chernoh Alpha Bah, an opposition politician to Sierra Leone President President Ernest Bai Koroma, helped organized a shipment of crucial medical supplies, including $140,000 worth of medical equipment, but he tells the Times the container has been stuck in a shipping yard since Aug. 9:

The shipping company, as a good-will gesture in a moment of crisis, had agreed to send the goods without being paid first, Mr. Bah said. But no more. Three other containers of similar value await shipment from the United States, he said, halted by the government's long refusal to pay.

"We will appreciate if the payment is made quickly so that the medical supplies will be sent directly to the affected or targeted areas," Mr. Bah wrote to the government on Aug. 16.

Instead, top government officials argued over the fee, said that the proper procedures had not been followed, and finally brushed aside the official urging that the supplies be let in, saying they wanted to hear nothing more about it.

As predicted, Ebola has spread to the U.S., including one confirmed case in Texas and multiple reports of patients with Ebola-like symptoms cropping up. The NBC cameraman who tested positive for Ebola was flown to Nebraska for treatment today, NBC News reports.

[Image via AP]