A man wearing a protective suit washes a health centre's hallways in
Kandopleu village, near Biankouma in Ivory Coast, on August 14, 2014.
The World Health Organisation said Thursday it aimed to reverse the
spread of Ebola within three months, but warned that the case load in
West Africa's epidemic could eventually top 20,000. PHOTO | AFP
GENEVA, Thursday
The
World Health Organisation (WHO) said Thursday it aimed to reverse the
spread of Ebola within three months, but warned that the caseload in
West Africa's epidemic could eventually top 20,000.
In a
new anti-Ebola plan, the UN health agency said it aimed to reverse the
trend within three months, with the final aim of stopping "all residual
transmission within 6-9 months".
It said the current case count — 3,062, with 1,552 deaths —
was likely several times lower than the actual number, and that the
number of infections "could exceed 20,000 over the course of this
emergency".
PRICE TAG
"This
road map assumes that in many areas of intense transmission the actual
number of cases may be two- to four-fold higher than that currently
reported," it said.
"It acknowledges that the aggregate case load of (Ebola) could exceed 20,000 over the course of this emergency," it added.
The plan called for a massive ramping up of efforts to contain and defeat the epidemic.
It
put a price tag of $490 million on a six-month campaign, saying the
money would need to come from WHO coffers as well as other aid agencies
and governments.
"This indicative budget does not
include the costs of broader support for essential services in the
countries worst affected, nor the costs of health systems recovery and
strengthening in these areas," it noted
No comments :
Post a Comment