THEWorld Health Organization (WHO) named Ghana among 15 countries it will focus its attention on to prevent the fast spread of the deadly Ebola virus disease.
The rest of the countries on the WHO’s list are Ivory Coast, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Senegal, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, CAR, DR Congo, Gambia,Mauritania, Nigeria, South Sudan and Togo.
This was after the European Union (EU) announced a review of its entry policies, when the disease was reported in the last untouched area of Sierra Leone, one of the disease worst affected countries.
In a statement, the WHO’s Global Director, Dr. Isabelle Nuttall said, “The objective is to stop the transmission from occurring in these countries. They may not have a case but after one case we don’t want more, these countries need to be better prepared.”
She added that, “this week we will cross 9,000 cases of Ebola and 4,500 deaths. The outbreak continues to hit health workers hard. So far 427 health care workers have been infected with Ebola and 236 have died.”
Meanwhile Senegal and Nigeria are expected to be declared Ebola-free within a few days, despite having had the disease there.
Most of the affected countries have been struggling to contain the virus, but these two countries [Nigeria and Senegal] have done so successfully.
The EU also announced that it was reviewing its screening controls for airline passengers leaving West Africa.
After an emergency meeting of EU health ministers, EU health chief Tonio Borg said the WHO and the EU would look into “conflicting reports” about whether the screening in Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea was good enough.
African Eye News
