Ebola: UN envoy calls for “big surge” in efforts to reduce transmission rates in Sierra Leone

UNITED NATIONS NEWS CENTRE                                                                                    Dec. 13, 2014
Amid a spike in Ebola transmission rates in Sierra Leone, the United Nations envoy coordinating the massive global crisis response has travelled to the West African nation to help implement a surge in efforts to contain the outbreak.

Anthony Banbury, head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), views an International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Ebola Treatment Centre in Kenema, Sierra Leone. (November 2014) UNMEER Photo/Ari Gaitanis

 “We need to put in place a big surge to get those case numbers down, and we've been working on implementing that surge in the last week,” Anthony Banbury, head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), said in a press release following his two-day visit to the country's capital, Freetown, from 11 to 12 December. With some 8,069 cases, Sierra Leone is now the worst-affected country in West Africa, according to UNMEER's latest data. Together, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have so far registered over 18,000 cases of Ebola, including more than 6,300 deaths.

 Earlier in the week, the UN Special Envoy on Ebola, Dr. David Nabarro, also noted that Sierra Leone had become an “area of concern” due to the high levels of viral transmission and urged “a much more intense response.”

Mr. Banbury is winding down his appointment as UNMEER chief and will be succeeded by Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed of Mauritania in early January 2015.

Read complete release.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=49599#.VI29E3u1f8w