HEALTH-EBOLA/LIBERIA-BAN KI MOON UN's Ban Ki-Moon begins visit to Ebola-hit countries

Record ID: 565705

  • Title: HEALTH-EBOLA/LIBERIA-BAN KI MOON UN's Ban Ki-Moon begins visit to Ebola-hit countries
  • Date: 19th December 2014
  • Summary: BAN INSPECTING LIBERIAN SOLDIERS /BAND PLAYING SOLDIERS STANDING TO ATTENTION
  • Embargoed: 3rd January 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Liberia
  • Country: Liberia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA7S367LAPGJPTE3F1G63OHR0DA
  • Story Text: U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged local communities in Liberia on Friday (December 19) to set aside traditional practices like washing the dead by hand, and to instead strictly follow health regulations set by the World Health Organisation (WHO), in order to help contain the spread of the Ebola virus.
    Ban arrived in Liberia on Friday at the start of a two-day tour of four nations struck by the worst ever outbreak of the deadly haemorrhagic fever, including Sierra Leone, Guinea and Mali.
    The tour is aimed at raising the profile of the efforts to fight Ebola and to thank the organizations and health workers who have participated.
    But while thanking them for their efforts, Ban also urged leaders to help educate locals on the necessity of abiding by strict health regulations.
    "It might have been very difficult to change such long-held tradition and culture, but it is absolutely necessary to abide by World Health Organization path guidelines, what they call protocols; otherwise it will be very difficult to contain this virus and make it a zero-case goal achieved. I am urging all the people, and particularly community leaders and religious leaders, to abide strictly by this health protocol," he said.
    Traditional West African practices - such as washing the bodies of the dead by hand at funerals - have helped to spread the fever, which has no known cure.
    The death toll from the nine-month-old epidemic rose to 6,915 as of Dec. 14, the WHO said on Wednesday (December 17). The virus, which causes vomiting, diarrhea and bleeding in its final stages, is spread by contact with the bodily fluids of the sick.
    Rates of infection are rising fastest in Sierra Leone, which accounts for more than half of the 18,603 confirmed cases of the virus. While infection is spreading rapidly around the coastal capital Freetown, where some aid workers say public information efforts have lagged.
    "Ladies and Gentlemen, looking ahead, the number of cases is still high, but our approach is adapting to the shifting evolution of the outbreak as it becomes more geographically dispersed. We need more robust contact tracing. We need greater preparedness at the district level. And the promising results that Liberia has experienced must be shared regionally to avoid the risk of re-transmission," said Ban.
    Sierra Leone, which Ban is also due to visit, launched "Operation Western Area Surge" this week to contain the outbreak - with health workers checking street by street looking for the sick.
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