- Title: HEALTH-EBOLA/GUINEA BAN KI-MOON UN's Ban urges to step up fight against Ebola
- Date: 20th December 2014
- Summary: CONAKRY, GUINEA (DECEMBER 20, 2014) (REUTERS) **** WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY **** U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL, BAN KI-MOON ARRIVING AT PRESIDENTIAL PALACE, GUINEA PRESIDENT, ALPHA CONDE WELCOMING BAN VARIOUS OF BAN, CONDE AND DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION, MARGARET CHAN 3, (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL, BAN KI-MOON, SAYING: "This is an unprecedented disease which United Nations and international (community) has never experienced, that is why the whole world is now been mobilised, that is why United Nations together with World Health Organisation have been working very closely. We are now working with strategic vision." BAN, CONDE STANDING (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL, BAN KI-MOON, SAYING: "We are raising political awareness, we are mobilising financial and logistical support, this is an unprecedented operation. We have to fight against this (disease)." BAN STANDING WITH CHAN (SOUNDBITE) (French) GUINEA PRESIDENT, ALPHA CONDE, SAYING: "I have told the secretary general what our concerns are: to cut the contamination chain, to follow 100% of those who contracted the disease and to help those who contracted the disease to stay home. I also (told him) about the great responsibility of the government in sensitization, making sure there is no resistance." CONDE AND GUINEA FOREIGN MINISTER, FRANCOIS FALL
- Embargoed: 4th January 2015 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Guinea
- Country: Guinea
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVAA9W9CLY5CVRPI5H0WQBNSQHFP
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: AUDIO AS INCOMING
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday (December 20), urged countries affected by the Ebola virus to step up the fight against the epidemic.
Ban was speaking in Guinea on the second day of a whistle-stop tour aimed at thanking healthcare workers of the countries hardest hit by the deadly disease.
According to the latest World Health Organisation figures, 7,373 people have died of Ebola in the three worst-affected countries, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Ban's tour began in Liberia and Sierra Leone on Friday (December 19), and will end later on Saturday in Ghana, at the site of the U.N. Ebola response mission (UNMEER), after a visit to Mali.
"This is an unprecedented disease which United Nations and international (community) has never experienced, that is why the whole world ha s now been mobilised, that is why United Nations together with the World Health Organisation have been working very closely. We are now working with strategic vision," Ban told U.N. officials in the capital Conakry, during a joint news conference with Guinea's President Alpha Conde.
"We are raising political awareness, we are mobilising financial and logistical support, this is an unprecedented operation. We have to fight against this (disease)," he added.
UNMEER is a short-term mission and Ban said he hoped its work would be done in a year from its formation last September.
"I have told the secretary general what our concerns are: to cut the contamination chain, to follow 100% of those who contracted the disease and to help those who contracted the disease to stay home. I also (told him) about the great responsibility of the government in sensitization, making sure there is no resistance," Guinea's President Alpha Conde said, speaking after Ban.
The number of new cases is slowing in Guinea and Liberia but Sierra Leone launched a campaign around the capital this week in an attempt to bring a rapid increase in transmissions there under control. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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