Ending the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history was a difficult task, but it was “within our reach”, the UN’s new mission chief on the disease said, warning that the world has no choice but to beat back the infection.
“This is a global crisis. We definitely have a difficult time ahead of us, but we can achieve it,” the new head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said on arrival in Ghana on Saturday.
“We have no plan B, we have to get rid of this virus. This is within our reach, but we should not be complacent,” said Ahmed, a Mauritanian, who had arrived in Accra to officially assume duty, taking over from American Anthony Banbury.
UNMEER, based in the Ghanaian capital, is leading international efforts in the battle against Ebola.
According to the latest World Health Organisation figures, there are more than 20200 confirmed, probable or suspected cases of Ebola and just over 7900 reported deaths.
The three worst-affected countries are Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
“We need to keep going until we don’t have even one case, because even one case is too many,” he said.
“The work ahead remains very hard but we really have no other choice,” the Ebola mission chief said.
Ahmed will be visiting Liberia and Sierra Leone this week, and Guinea shortly after, “to reinforce UNMEER’s strategic priorities and see first-hand the Ebola response”.
He will be accompanied by UN Special Envoy on Ebola, David Nabarro.
Before his new appointment, Ahmed served as deputy special representative and deputy head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya.
At a press conference last week in Ghana on the eve of his departure for New York, Banbury had said he was confident that the number of Ebola cases would start to fall in the early part of 2015.
lA US health care worker possibly exposed to the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone was expected to arrive for observation yesterday at a Nebraska facility that has treated three Ebola cases, hospital officials said.
The patient, who was not identified, was expected to arrive at the Biocontainment Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Centre in Omaha via private air ambulance for observation and possible treatment, the centre said.
The patient “has been exposed to the virus but is not ill and is not contagious,” said Dr Phil Smith, the unit’s medical director, adding “we will be taking all appropriate precautions”.
The same team that cared for three previous Ebola patients at the facility, two of whom were successfully treated, would be working on the case, Smith said. A third patient who arrived gravely ill died a short time later.
On Saturday, a London hospital said a British nurse being treated for Ebola was in critical condition after deteriorating over the last two days.
The Royal Free Hospital said Pauline Cafferkey, 39, the first person diagnosed with Ebola on British soil, had returned to Britain from Sierra Leone where she had been working for a charity. — AFP-Reuters
Ending deadly Ebola outbreak ‘within reach’
“This is a global crisis. We definitely have a difficult time ahead of us, but we can achieve it,” the new head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said on arrival in Ghana on Saturday.
“We have no plan B, we have to get rid of this virus. This is within our reach, but we should not be complacent,” said Ahmed, a Mauritanian, who had arrived in Accra to officially assume duty, taking over from American Anthony Banbury.
UNMEER, based in the Ghanaian capital, is leading international efforts in the battle against Ebola.
According to the latest World Health Organisation figures, there are more than 20200 confirmed, probable or suspected cases of Ebola and just over 7900 reported deaths.
The three worst-affected countries are Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
“We need to keep going until we don’t have even one case, because even one case is too many,” he said.
“The work ahead remains very hard but we really have no other choice,” the Ebola mission chief said.
Ahmed will be visiting Liberia and Sierra Leone this week, and Guinea shortly after, “to reinforce UNMEER’s strategic priorities and see first-hand the Ebola response”.
He will be accompanied by UN Special Envoy on Ebola, David Nabarro.
Before his new appointment, Ahmed served as deputy special representative and deputy head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya.
At a press conference last week in Ghana on the eve of his departure for New York, Banbury had said he was confident that the number of Ebola cases would start to fall in the early part of 2015.
lA US health care worker possibly exposed to the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone was expected to arrive for observation yesterday at a Nebraska facility that has treated three Ebola cases, hospital officials said.
The patient, who was not identified, was expected to arrive at the Biocontainment Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Centre in Omaha via private air ambulance for observation and possible treatment, the centre said.
The patient “has been exposed to the virus but is not ill and is not contagious,” said Dr Phil Smith, the unit’s medical director, adding “we will be taking all appropriate precautions”.
The same team that cared for three previous Ebola patients at the facility, two of whom were successfully treated, would be working on the case, Smith said. A third patient who arrived gravely ill died a short time later.
On Saturday, a London hospital said a British nurse being treated for Ebola was in critical condition after deteriorating over the last two days.
The Royal Free Hospital said Pauline Cafferkey, 39, the first person diagnosed with Ebola on British soil, had returned to Britain from Sierra Leone where she had been working for a charity. — AFP-Reuters
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