Nearly $1 billion dollars is needed to fight the Ebola outbreak raging in west Africa, the United Nations said Tuesday, warning that 20,000 could be infected by year end. UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said there was a huge funding challenge. If not dealt with effectively now, Ebola could become a major humanitarian crisis in countries currently affected, she told reporters in Geneva. The capacity of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia to provide even the most basic necessities was, she warned, on the brink of collapse. US President Barack Obama was set Tuesday to announce US efforts to turn the tide in the Ebola epidemic, with plans to order 3,000 US military personnel to west Africa. US advisors will also train up to 500 health care providers per week in Liberia, according to the plan Obama was set to unveil in Atlanta. The United Nations said the response to the crisis will require $ 987.8 million, with about half needed for the worst-hit country, Liberia. Its announcement comes amid mounting global alarm over the worst-ever Ebola epidemic, which by Friday had claimed 2,461 lives out of 4,985 cases, according to fresh numbers from the World Health Organization. The UN document estimates that some 20,000 people could be infected with Ebola by the end of the year, with Guinea accounting for 16 percent of infections, Sierra Leone 34 percent and Liberia a full 40 percent. If the international community and affected countries respond swiftly and energetically, transmission should begin to slow by the end of the year and halt by mid-2015, the document said. WHO said Tuesday it this week was reconvening its emergency committee in Geneva which declared the outbreak an international health emergency in August, to consider further measures to limit its spread. The UN Security Council will meanwhile hold an emergency session Thursday to discuss ways to ramp up the global response to the epidemic. The Ebola virus can fell its victims within days, causing severe fever and muscle pain, weakness, vomiting and diarrhoea -- in some cases shutting down organs and causing unstoppable bleeding. No licenced vaccine or treatment exists but health experts are looking at fast-tracking two potential vaccines and eight treatments, including the drug ZMapp.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 20:46:19 +0000
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