{"id":57709,"date":"2014-10-20T07:03:29","date_gmt":"2014-10-20T07:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=57709"},"modified":"2014-10-20T07:03:29","modified_gmt":"2014-10-20T07:03:29","slug":"liberias-ellen-johnson-sirleaf-urges-world-help-on-ebola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=57709","title":{"rendered":"Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf urges world help on Ebola"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf says the whole world has a stake in the fight against Ebola.<\/p>\n

In a “letter to the world” broadcast on the BBC, she said the disease “respects no borders”, and that every country had to do all it could to help fight it.<\/p>\n

President Johnson Sirleaf added that a generation of Africans were at risk of “being lost to economic catastrophe”.<\/p>\n

The Ebola outbreak has killed more than 4,500 people across West Africa, including 2,200 in Liberia.<\/p>\n

International donations have so far fallen well short of the amounts requested by UN agencies and aid organisations.<\/p>\n

In the worst-affected countries – Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone – about 9,000 people have been found to have the Ebola virus, which kills an estimated 70% of those infected.<\/p>\n

\"Ebola<\/div>\n
The Ebola outbreak has killed more than 2,200 people in Liberia alone<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Fragile states<\/strong><\/div>\n

The letter, commissioned by the BBC and read out on the World Service’s Newshour programme<\/a>, starts with the words “Dear World”.<\/p>\n

She goes on to say that the fight against Ebola “requires a commitment from every nation that has the capacity to help – whether that is with emergency funds, medical supplies or clinical expertise”.<\/p>\n

“We all have a stake in the battle against Ebola,” she says. “It is the duty of all of us, as global citizens, to send a message that we will not leave millions of West Africans to fend for themselves.”<\/p>\n

\"AThousands of West Africans are being kept in isolation to try to stop Ebola from spreading<\/div>\n

She said it was not a coincidence that Ebola had taken hold in “three fragile states… all battling to overcome the effects of interconnected wars”.<\/p>\n

Liberia, she noted, had about 3,000 qualified doctors at the start of the civil war in the late 1980s – and by its end in 2003 it had just three dozen.<\/p>\n

“Ebola is not just a health crisis,” she added. “Across West Africa a generation of young people risk being lost to an economic catastrophe.”<\/p>\n

Donation shortfall<\/span><\/p>\n

The latest crisis in West Africa is the worst-ever Ebola outbreak.<\/p>\n

The virus spreads between humans by direct contact with infected blood, bodily fluids or organs, or indirectly through contact with contaminated environments.<\/p>\n

Donors have given almost $400m (\u00a3250m) to UN agencies and aid organisations, short of the $988m requested.<\/p>\n

Separately, the UN has also appealed for donations to a $1bn Ebola trust fund, intended to act as a flexible source of back-up money to contain the disease.<\/p>\n

\"Graphic<\/div>\n

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said on Friday that the fund, which was launched in September, had received just $100,000 (\u00a362,000) in donations so far.<\/p>\n

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan told the BBC he was “bitterly disappointed” with the international community’s response.<\/p>\n

“If the crisis had hit some other region it probably would have been handled very differently,” he said in a BBC interview.<\/p>\n

\"line\"<\/div>\n

How not to catch Ebola<\/a>:<\/p>\n