UN Ebola Chief Says Community Action Key to Ending Ebola

ASSOCIATED PRESS  by EDITH M. LEDERER                     Feb. 18, 2015

UNITED NATIONS -- The goal set by the presidents of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea of reducing the number of new cases of the deadly disease to zero by April 15 can be reached — but only if local communities stop unsafe burials and healing practices that involve human contact, the U.N. Ebola chief said Wednesday.

Dr. David Nabarro told the U.N. General Assembly that there are now 10 times fewer people diagnosed with Ebola each week than there were last September. But he said preventing the final 10 percent of infections — about 120 to 130 new cases per week — is probably going to be the hardest because it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Ismael Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who heads the the U.N. Ebola mission in West Africa SAID ...."denial, distrust and a lack of understanding (of Ebola) continue to create resistance in certain pockets and lead to dangerous practices that probably promote further outbreaks."

Nabarro said the "surge" in Sierra Leone and Guinea will require putting several hundred additional U.N. staff in local communities "to coordinate support for an intensive country-led and community-driven push to end this outbreak" by April 15.

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http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/ebola-chief-community-action-key-ending-ebola-29058512