WHO to unveil response plan for Ebola

August 23, 2014 11:02 am | Updated November 16, 2021 05:41 pm IST - United Nations

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said it will unveil a response plan to deal with the current Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa.

“The WHO has announced that it is working on a six to nine-month plan against Ebola, an operational document that will detail the strategy against the virus,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Friday.

“That plan should be presented early next week,” Xinhua quoted Dujarric as saying.

Meanwhile, UN system coordinator for Ebola, David Nabarro is wrapping up his visit to Monrovia and Liberia following a press conference on the matter.

“In light of the recent decision by several countries to close their borders to people travelling from Ebola--affected countries, the WHO reiterates that it does not recommend any ban on international travel or trade,” Dujarric said.

Dujarric also quoted the WHO as saying that closing borders does not work and is detrimental, as affected countries will be pushed towards a humanitarian crisis and the international community’s ability to fight and reverse the Ebola outbreak will be hampered.

“The WHO and its partners also continue to highlight that the virus is not airborne and that becoming infected requires direct physical contact with body fluids of people who have been infected or died from Ebola,” Dujarric added.

Ebola spreads through body fluids and has >killed over 1,300 people in West African countries this year.

Top News Today

Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.