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Friday 3 October 2014
EBOLA: UN launches mission to halt worldwide Ebola spread
MONROVIA : The UN launched a mission on
Thursday to prevent the worldwide spread of
Ebola as the US hunted for people who came in
contact with the first African diagnosed with the
deadly virus outside the continent.
Anthony Banbury, the special representative for
the UN Mission on Ebola Emergency Response
(UNMEER), was expected to set ambitious targets
for action on the crisis as he began a tour of the
three worst-hit nations in the Liberian capital
Monrovia.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said she had told
Banbury the virus had spread to all 15 counties of
Liberia, the worst-hit nation with almost two-
thirds of the 3,338 deaths in west Africa.
“Affected people are leaving from urban places
and hiding out in remote communities,” Sirleaf
said, according to a statement from the
presidency following the meeting on Wednesday.
“If we do not move in as quickly as possible, the
virus (will) further spread in rural areas.”
Banbury was due to address the media before
moving on to Sierra Leone and then Guinea over
the coming days, with US health officials scouring
the Dallas area for people who came in contact
with a Liberian man diagnosed with Ebola.
The man first sought treatment in Texas on
September 25 but hospital officials have admitted
he may have come into contact with many more
people than first thought because an apparent
miscommunication among staff resulted in his
release back into the community for several days.
Ebola is spread through close contact with the
bodily fluids of an infected person, and can only
be transmitted when a patient is showing
symptoms like fever, aches, bleeding, vomiting or
diarrhoea.
The man - the first person to be diagnosed with
Ebola on US soil - flew from Liberia, the hardest-
hit nation in west Africa’s deadly Ebola outbreak,
and arrived in Texas September 20 to visit family.
He fell ill on September 24.
He went to the hospital the next day but was sent
home because the medical team “felt clinically it
was a low-grade common viral disease”, said Mark
Lester, executive vice president of Texas Health
Resources.
“He volunteered that he had travelled from Africa
in response to the nurse operating the checklist
and asking that question,” Lester added.
“Regretfully, that information was not fully
communicated throughout the full team.”
The patient is currently in serious but stable
condition.
The Liberian government expressed “regret” on
Thursday over the spread of Ebola from Monrovia
to the US, adding that the incident had
demonstrated “the clear international dimension
of this Ebola crisis”.
The incubation period for Ebola is between two
and 21 days. Patients are not contagious until
they start to have symptoms but once the disease
takes hold it can lead to massive bleeding and
fatal organ failure.
Britain hosted a conference in London on
Thursday to gather support for the fight against
Ebola in Sierra Leone, its former colony which has
seen more than 600 deaths.
President Ernest Bai Koroma had been due to be
the guest of honour at the half-day meeting,
which has brought together ministers, diplomats
and health officials from around 20 countries and
world organisations.
But a plane chartered to fly him to London was
unable to take off due to “technical difficulties”,
the UK Foreign Office said.
Save the Children warned as the conference
began that five people are being infected with
Ebola every hour in Sierra Leone and demand for
treatment beds is far outstripping supply.
If the current “terrifying” rate of infection
continues, 10 people will be infected every hour
with the deadly virus in the West African country
by the end of October, the London-based charity
warned.
“We need a coordinated international response
that ensures treatment centres are built and
staffed immediately,” chief executive Justin
Forsyth said in a statement.
Britain has pledged £120 million ($190 million, 150
million euros) to help build an estimated 700
treatment beds, fund new community treatment
centres, support existing public health services
and support aid agencies in Sierra Leone.
Officials are hoping to secure pledges of support
and money at Thursday’s meeting, as well as to
share best practices with those working in Liberia
and Guinea.
The United Nations has announced its first
suspected victim of Ebola, a Liberian man who
worked for the UN mission in Liberia and died of
a probable but unconfirmed infection last week.
In response to the fast-moving outbreak, the
World Bank boosted its aid to the campaign by
adding $170 million toward expanding the health-
care workforce and buying needed supplies for
care and treatment.
The new aid took to $400 million the amount the
bank has put toward the fight against the spread
of Ebola, which has swept quickly through Liberia,
Guinea and Sierra Leone.
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