The United Nations has launched a mission to halt the global spread of Ebola virus, describing the epidemic as the world’s “highest priority.”
Anthony Banbury, head of the UN Mission on Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), kicked off his first of three visits to the Ebola-stricken nations of West Africa on Thursday, starting in the Liberian capital Monrovia.
The UN envoy is to visit Sierra Leone on Friday and Guinea on Sunday.
Banbury said he is determined to contribute to what he described as “the highest priority for the international community for the whole world, not just the United Nations.”
Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had told Banbury on his arrival that the virus has devoured all fifteen counties of Liberia, the most affected country with nearly two-thirds of the total deaths in West Africa.
The tour comes as the United States struggles to inhibit its own outbreak to one patient. Health officials in Texas said on Thursday that they were still questioning people who may have crossed paths with Thomas E. Duncan while he was contagious with the deadly virus.
The man, who is the first person to be diagnosed with the virus in the US fell ill on September 24, after returning from Liberia.
On October 1, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the Ebola death toll in West Africa had risen to 3,338.
Ebola is a form of hemorrhagic fever whose symptoms are diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding.
The virus spreads through direct contact with infected blood, feces or sweat. It can also be spread through sexual contact or the unprotected handling of contaminated corpses
courtesy:Presstv.com
