May 06, 2025 07:37 pm (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
Modi, Albanese eye to advance India-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership during telephone conversation | Hold dialogue with all political parties on caste census: Mallikarjun Kharge writes to PM Modi | PM Modi meets NSA Ajit Doval amid India's wait for retaliation against Pahalgam terror attack | Pakistan grilled at UNSC amid rising tension with India after Pahalgam terror attack | 'We'll do everything we can': US House Speaker backs India in fight against terrorism after Pahalgam attack | Centre asks several states to conduct security mock drills amid tensions with Pakistan, first since 1971 | PM Modi holds meeting with Defence Secy as India plans retaliation against Pahalgam attack | Terror hideout busted in Kashmir's Poonch amid India-Pak border tensions after Pahalgam attack | India snaps water flow to Pakistan from Baglihar dam on Chenab river in Pahalgam fallout | Trump imposes 100 percent tariff on non-US films, says 'Hollywood dying a very fast death'

Fight against Ebola requires district-by-district approach – head of UN response mission

| | Dec 31, 2014, at 06:44 pm
New York, Dec 31 (IBNS) The outgoing head of the head of the United Nations Emergency Ebola Response Mission (UNMEER) said on Tuesday that communities are going to play a big role in defeating the “nasty disease” in West Africa by stamping out outbreaks while they are small and not allowing them to become bigger.

“Ebola is a very nasty disease, and it’s going to present us with some very unpleasant surprises I fear going forward,” Anthony Banbury told UN Radio in Monrovia, Liberia. “And that’s why we really need to strengthen our capabilities.”

“What’s so important is that we have good surveillance on the ground so we can have early detection of any outbreak and a rapid response capability so that any outbreak that is detected we can stamp quickly while it is a small outbreak and not allow it to become a big outbreak,”  Banbury said.

Banbury, who is ending his tour of duty on 3 January 2015, met with Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf during his two-day visit to Liberia and said he was “extremely pleased” with the progress he saw on the ground when he visited an area which has suffered from the outbreak.

He credited the “really important” role communities are playing and will continue to play in bringing to an end the outbreak, which has so far affected more than 20,000 with over 7,800 deaths, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization.

“It’s working,” he said. “We just need to do more.”

While acknowledging the difficulty in getting Ebola response workers to some of the remote areas, he emphasized the importance of a district by district strategy and said: “We really need to be present out in the districts.”

UNMEER, meanwhile, reported that on 29 December, a healthcare worker was diagnosed with Ebola after returning to Scotland from Sierra Leone, and the patient was transferred to a specialist treatment centre in London the following day. Authorities reported that two more people were being tested for the virus, according to UNMEER.

And in Guinea, the UN mission also reported on Tuesday that the UN Development Programme (UNDP) made additional incentive payments to 758 health personnel working in four Ebola treatment facilities in Guinea to ensure their continued engagement in saving patients. Together with UNMEER and the World Bank, UNDP assisted the Guinean Ministry of Health ensured that $220,000 were deposited in local banks.

Banbury will be succeeded by Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed of Mauritania as the head of the first UN-system wide operation to tackle a health emergency.

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
Close menu