The UN's new mission chief on Ebola condemns "a problem of coordination" in the fightback against Ebola. The three west African countries worst hit by the epidemic should be leading the response against the killer virus, he added.
"The governments of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea are the ones who are driving... this is about their people, this is about the fate of their countries, we should acknowledge that national leadership," said Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the new head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER).
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"There is a problem of coordination," he said on his first visit to Monrovia, warning of "too many cooks in the kitchen" with good intentions.
The Ebola crisis has claimed 8,235 lives over the past year, almost all of them in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Liberia, long the hardest-hit country, has however seen a steep drop in new infections in recent weeks.
![Ebola Virus Disease]( "Ebola Virus Disease")
Ebola is caused by a virus via direct contact with body fluids or infected blood. Scientists have identified five types of Ebola or Ebola hemorrhagic fever virus.
But Ahmed warned "there is still a lot to be done in order to declare Liberia Ebola free".
"It is always in this moment of optimism that you can see some degree of complacency," he said.
In Sierra Leone, which has overtaken Liberia as the country with the most infections, authorities on Wednesday announced another door-to-door campaign in the west of the country to raise awareness of the haemorrhagic fever.
The country's chief medical officer Brima Kargbo told AFP that a similar campaign over two weeks in December had been a success, leading to 266 new Ebola cases being discovered.
In Guinea meanwhile, Nigerian President Mahamadou Issoufou and his counterpart from Benin, Thomas Yayi Boni, carried out a joint visit to show their "solidarity" with the nation where the outbreak began in December 2013.
Source: AFP
Liberia, long the hardest-hit country, has however seen a steep drop in new infections in recent weeks.
Ebola Virus Disease
Ebola is caused by a virus via direct contact with body fluids or infected blood. Scientists have identified five types of Ebola or Ebola hemorrhagic fever virus.
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But Ahmed warned "there is still a lot to be done in order to declare Liberia Ebola free".
"It is always in this moment of optimism that you can see some degree of complacency," he said.
In Sierra Leone, which has overtaken Liberia as the country with the most infections, authorities on Wednesday announced another door-to-door campaign in the west of the country to raise awareness of the haemorrhagic fever.
The country's chief medical officer Brima Kargbo told AFP that a similar campaign over two weeks in December had been a success, leading to 266 new Ebola cases being discovered.
In Guinea meanwhile, Nigerian President Mahamadou Issoufou and his counterpart from Benin, Thomas Yayi Boni, carried out a joint visit to show their "solidarity" with the nation where the outbreak began in December 2013.
Source: AFP
World Support for Ebola: US$35 Million Funding from King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia
Zaire ebolavirus is commonly known as Ebola. It was previously known as ebola haemorrhagic fever and is a deadly human illness.
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 Ebola Vaccines to be Reviewed by Experts in Geneva MeetProgress on possible vaccines against the deadly Ebola virus will be reviewed when experts will gather at Geneva this week, said the World Health Organization on Wednesday. | Advertisement
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