UN Ebola Mission calls for huge increase in aid, if Ebola is to be defeated

The  UN’s special envoy on Ebola, Mr. David Nabarro, has addressed  the UN Security Council in New York on Ebola.

The head of the UN’s Ebola mission warned a huge increase in aid was still needed to fight the virus.

MR. DAVID NAVARRO

“There is a long battle ahead of us,” Anthony Banbury , the  Deputy Ebola Coordinator and Operation Crisis Manager,  told the UN Security Council Friday, saying a “tremendous increase in resources on the ground, in a dispersed geographic area” was required to fight the epidemic. “We are far, far away from ending this crisis,” he added.

In previous months, the United Nations said about $1 billion (about 800 million euros) would be needed to stop the outbreak, but the world body recently increased that figure to $1.5 billion and was shifting its focus to preventing the virus spreading in rural areas.

“If we take our eye off the ball, case numbers will rise again, and we will all count the cost,” the UN’s special envoy on Ebola, David Nabarro, told the UN Security Council in New York.