TEMPO.CO, New York – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the United Nations mission to fight Ebola should be wound down quickly once the battle was won.
"Ebola is a very urgent and unprecedented epidemic, therefore we cannot take too long in eliminating it," he told Reuters.
The UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Responses (UNMEER) was established in September to coordinate Ebola eradication between governments, humanitarian agencies and healthcare workers in affected countries.
UNMEER’s mandate will be revoked once Ebola is eliminated, but Ban said “there's a tendency that missions go on because of continuing political instability and conflict."
"That is why I am sending a political message. It is not because we have made any decision on when UNMEER should end, but it should be a short-term mission," he said.
Ban visited Sierra Leone and Liberia last Friday, before arriving in Guinea last Saturday to meet President Alpha Conde. He also visited Mali where there are eight cured Ebola patients and met President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
In Guinea, Ban urged countries to act indiscriminately towards Ebola healthcare workers. The statement came after Ban met Rebecca Johnson, a nurse treating Ebola patients at a treatment center in Sierra Leone. She recounted how she fell ill, recovered and is now back treating Ebola patients, but complained about the stigma she is facing as a survivor.
Recent figures by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday recorded 7,373 death tolls in three most affected countries: Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. The figures rose from 6,900 two days before. Sierra Leone has new 392 death tolls. Mali, Nigeria and the United States each has six, eight and one Ebola death tolls. In total, there are 19,031 cases in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, increasing from 18,569.
REUTERS | GUARDIAN | TIME NATALIA SANTI
