World ‘losing the battle’ to contain Ebola

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International medical agency Medecins sans Frontieres said Tuesday the world was “losing the battle” to contain Ebola and called for a global biological disaster response to get aid and personnel to west Africa.

Health care workers wearing protective suits walk under the rain at the Medecins Sans Frontieres Elwa hospital on August 30, 2014 in MonroviaHealth care workers wearing protective suits walk under the rain at the Medecins Sans Frontieres Elwa hospital on August 30, 2014 in Monrovia -AFP/ france24

“Six months into the worst Ebola epidemic in history, the world is losing the battle to contain it. Leaders are failing to come to grips with this transnational threat,” MSF international president Joanne Liu told a UN briefing in New York.

“The (World Health Organization) announcement on August 8 that the epidemic constituted a ‘public health emergency of international concern’ has not led to decisive action, and states have essentially joined a global coalition of inaction.”

Liu called for the international community to fund more beds for a regional network of field hospitals, dispatch trained personnel and deploy mobile laboratories across Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. -AFP/ france24