With more than one million people affected by the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the WHO has warned that there is “no early end in sight” to the severe health crisis and called for “extraordinary measures” to stop the transmission of the disease.
According to the latest update issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO), 128 new cases of Ebola virus disease, as well as 56 deaths, were reported from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone between August 10 and 11, bringing the total number of cases to 1,975 and deaths to 1,069.
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said more than one million people are affected by the disease and these people need daily material support, including food.
The infected people are in the “hot zone of disease transmission” on the borders of the three countries most impacted by the disease.
“There is no early end (to the outbreak) in sight. This is an extraordinary outbreak that requires extraordinary measures for containment. This is a severe health crisis, and it can rapidly become a humanitarian crisis if we do not do more to stop transmission,” Ms. Chan said during a briefing in Geneva.
UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon chaired a UN system-wide coordination on Ebola and stressed the need for the entire UN system to support the WHO’s efforts in combatting the outbreak.
Ms. Chan said the outbreak has placed every city with an international airport at risk of an imported case.
“Decisions to seal off the hot zone of disease transmission, that is, the area where the borders of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone intersect, are critical for stopping the reinfection of areas via the cross—border movement of people,” she said.
Ms. Chan said that the isolation of the zone most affected by the outbreak has made it even more difficult for agencies, like MSF (Doctors without Borders), to bring in staff and supplies.
“The outbreak is unprecedented in its size, severity, and complexity. Cases are occurring in remote rural areas that are difficult to access, but also in capital cities,” she said.
She also expressed concern over the “unprecedented” number of health-care workers who have been infected by the virus. So far, nearly 170 health-care workers have been infected and more than 80 have died.
