The outgoing Head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) has warned that that there is much to be done to contain the Ebola disease even though the rate of infection has slowed down.
After visiting the three most affected countries; Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone before leaving office, Anthony Banbury said there are now 20,000 new cases per week instead of the predicted 1.4 million earlier predicted by the World Bank.
[contextly_sidebar id=”1ZchjhV3egas0hgWdelqlOpsrE7SI1ek”]According to him, there have been massive achievements by the UNMEER team since its establishment in September 2014, which has contributed to the successes of containing the disease.
Latest figures by the World Health Organization (WHO) said Ebola has killed nearly 8,000 people since the outbreak of the disease in March 2014.
Mr. Banbury is optimistic that the disease would be contained to a large extent by the end of 2015 but was quick to add that they are nowhere near bringing the number of cases to zero.
“Its an epic battle, its going to go on for some time… It is a long difficult path ahead of us, we have not come anywhere close to ending the crisis,” he noted.
“From what we were facing in September to where we are now, I think the response has been successful but we have a long way to go, an epic battle and its a very difficult fight and we don’t know what the future holds,” he added.
The outgoing UNMEER boss was quick to add that the UN’s decision to establish the mission was timely and has contributed largely to containing the rate of infection.
“The disease had been spreading for 12 months, UNMEER has been present for one quarter of that time, came in when the crisis was at almost its worst but after the establishment of UNMEER there has been a steady decline. But that is due to a lot of factors… the communities, the African Union, the NGOs a lot of organizations are responsible for turning this around but there is no question that UNMEER is part of that success,” he said.
Was UNMEER overly ambitious about its targets?
UNMEER promised among other things, 100% safe burials, 70% of all victims would be cared for by the 90th day of its establishment, but some of these targets have not been met.
Explaining the position of UNMEER, Anthony Banbury said , “… it was absolutely right to set very ambitious targets for Ebola. People are dying, there are about 600 new cases a week now, that is far below the 10,000 earlier predicted but its 600 human beings and the fatality rate is between 58% and 60% in the three countries which means about 360 are dying per week and that is very serious. So its an obligation for us to have an ambitious target bring the disease to an end.”
By: Nana Boakye-Yiadom/citifmonline.com/Ghana