United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon will be visiting Ebola-stricken countries during the week, according to a senior organization official.
Ban had intended to go to West Africa sooner but his busy schedule proved to be a hindrance. The UN chief's visit to West Africa, where he will be accompanied by Dr. David Nabarro, Ban's special envoy on Ebola, and Margaret Chan, World Health Organization director general, will be officially announced at a year-end news conference.
The trip appears to be intended to rally Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia into solidarity given the outbreak ravaging the countries. Improvements have been observed but there's still a long way before the virus and its effects will be eradicated.
On that note, the United Nations had been accused of inadequately responding to the crisis, failing to meet the organization's own targets of stopping the virus from spreading, treating all those affected and safely burying the dead by the end of the year.
Ban earlier in September established an emergency mission geared towards coordinating global response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, pressing world leaders to provide medical supplies, doctors and money. Unfortunately, his bid to raise $1.5 billion in aid has not been achieved.
Ebola has at least infected 18,000 people, claiming at least 6,800 lives out of that number. Treatment centers have been set up in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia but the infection has shifted, adding to the difficulty of curbing the outbreak. In Sierra Leone, for example, new cases are minimal in previous hot spots, but now the virus is making its way through the western portion of the country.
"There were 4,281 new Ebola cases reported from Nov. 9 to Dec. 6, compared with the 2,705 new cases reported from Oct. 19 to Nov. 8. Cases were widely distributed geographically among districts in all three countries, with the prefecture of Mamou in Guinea reported to be newly affected," wrote the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in an update, adding cases were highest around Monrovia, northwest and western areas of Sierra Leone and Conakry in Guinea.
Cases are still also being reported in Liberia's Lofa and Montserrado but have been steadily dropping in number, as of Dec. 6. Incidence rates are measured based on more than 100 cases for every 100,000 people.
Back in October, the transmission was successfully interrupted in Nigeria and completely prevented in Senegal.
