UN: Ebola Outbreak Could Become Pandemic -Anxious Health Ministers From 11 Countries In Emergency Meeting

 

Dr. Jerome C. Corsi / WND

 

UNITED NATIONS – Health ministers from 11 West African countries began a two-day Emergency Ministerial meeting in Accra, Ghana, Wednesday amid concern the outbreak of the Ebola virus that began in Ghana could spread across their region as an uncontrolled pandemic.

In a statement distributed at the United Nations, the World Health Organization, WHO, classified the current Ebola outbreak as the worst ever.

 

The outbreak traces back to cases appearing in rural Guinea in March, which spread across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. So far, a total of 750 cases and 455 deaths have been reported in the affected countries, according to WHO.

 

Reuters reported Wednesday the Red Cross was forced to temporarily suspend some operations in the country’s southeast after a marked Red Cross vehicle was confronted and stopped by a knife-wielding mob that was concerned the medical workers were responsible for spreading the disease.

 

The WHO regional director for Africa, Dr. Luis Gomes Sambo, speaking at the opening session of the Accra meeting, called for urgent, collective cross-actions to bring an end to the outbreak.

 

“Your leadership is critical in ensuring that preventive and containment measures are effectively implemented in your countries,” Sambo said. “To this end, I would like to stress the need to redeploy human resources and reallocate funds to facilitate operations in affected communities.”

 

Sambo observed that the continuing spread of the Ebola virus is largely associated with some cultural practices and traditional beliefs that are contrary to recommended public health preventive measures. Also, the extensive movement of people within and across borders has facilitated the rapid spread of the infection across three countries.

 

“In Liberia, our biggest challenge is denial, fear and panic. Our people are very much afraid of the disease,” Bernice Dahn, Liberia’s deputy health minister, told Reuters at the Accra meeting. “People are afraid but do not believe that the disease exists and because of that people get sick and the community members hide them and bury them, against all the norms we have put in place.”

 

Read more at WND:

 

http://www.wnd.com/2014/07/u-n-warns-ebola-could-become-pandemic/