Source: UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response
Country: Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone
KEY POINTS
UN Special Envoy on Ebola Dr. David Nabarro is hopeful the outbreak could end in 2015.
Luxembourg has committed 2 airplanes for European medical evacuation operations of international humanitarian workers diagnosed with EVD.
A total of 13,110 confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of EVD have been reported. There have been 4,828 reported deaths.
Key Political and Economic Developments
- UN Special Envoy on Ebola Dr. David Nabarro said the extraordinary global response over the past month has made him hopeful the outbreak could end in 2015, though he cautioned that the fight to contain the disease is not even a quarter done. In the past four weeks, the rate of EVD infections seems to be slowing in some parts of West Africa, he said. In other hotspots it appears to be expanding the way it was a month ago. Nabarro said there are five times more beds for treatment in the three most affected countries than there were two months ago, which is helping to reduce the number of cases, along with improving efforts to find infected people and trace their contacts.
Nabarro pointed to two other positive signs: the extraordinary global response in the last month and the mobilization of local communities in the three countries as a result of massive media campaigns and house-to-house "sensitization efforts" involving traditional leaders.
- At the end of a three-day visit to Sierra Leone, UN World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director Ertharin Cousin Thursday called upon partners all over the world to work together to address the needs of those affected by the crisis. During her visit to Sierra Leone she met with President Ernest Bai Koroma, UNMEER ECM Amadu Kamara as well as representatives of donor countries, UN agencies and NGOs. She also met traditional leaders and survivors of EVD. WFP provides food assistance to patients in Ebola treatment units, survivors of EVD and communities with widespread and intense transmission. Besides food, WFP also provides crucial transport and logistics support, building Ebola treatment units and storage hubs for the entire humanitarian community.
