The head of the World Health Organization and leaders of West African nations affected by the Ebola outbreak are to announce a new $100m (£59m; 75m euro) response plan.
They are meeting in Guinea to launch the initiative to tackle a virus which has claimed 729 lives.
Sierra Leone has declared an emergency after 233 people died there.
Ebola spreads by contact with infected blood, bodily fluids, organs – or contaminated environments.
Initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external haemorrhaging from areas like eyes and gums, and internal bleeding which can lead to organ failure.
Ebola kills up to 90% of those infected, with patients having a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment.
WHO Director General Margaret Chan is meeting West African presidents in the Guinean capital Conakry.
“The scale of the Ebola outbreak, and the persistent threat it poses, requires WHO and Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to take the response to a new level, and this will require increased resources, in-country medical expertise, regional preparedness and coordination,” she said in a statement released on the WHO website on Thursday.
“The countries have identified what they need, and WHO is reaching out to the international community to drive the response plan forward.”
Key elements of the WHO’s new plan are:
Stopping transmission in the affected countries through “scaling up effective, evidence-based outbreak control measures”
Preventing the spread of Ebola to “the neighbouring at-risk countries through strengthening epidemic preparedness and response measures”
The response builds upon a previous plan that called for several hundred more personnel to be deployed to the region.
The WHO says that the scale of the ongoing outbreak is “unprecedented”, with about 1,323 confirmed and suspected cases reported in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since March 2014.
{wirestory}
Leave a Reply