Ebola Update - Noon Briefing (1 December 2014)

United Nations - Ebola Update by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the United Nations Secretary-General at the Daily Noon Briefing at UN Headquarters in New York (1 December 2014).

(Update)
Dr David Nabarro, the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Ebola, and Anthony Banbury, Head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, gave a press conference a few hours ago in Freetown, Sierra Leone, to mark the first 60 days of the Mission known by its acronym, UNMEER.
Anthony Banbury said that the worst case scenario seemed to have been avoided. The UN had set some targets for December 1 of 70 % of burials being done safely and 70% of new cases being placed in treatment facility. Mr. Banbury said the targets have been exceeded in all three countries on safe burials, while the second target on isolating patients had been reached in Liberia and Guinea, but only in some parts of Sierra Leone.
He said the strategy implemented against Ebola seemed to work but that going forward, zero new cases was the only criteria for success. He said the Mission would apply a district by district approach for the next 60-day to hunt down all cases.
Dr Nabarro also said that we are starting to see results against Ebola but that the response must be constantly adapted to needs, as intensity of transmission is still uneven. The situation can worsen unexpectedly, he warned.
He said all of us must remain engaged and vigilant until the last case has been treated and beyond.
I also want to flag a press release issued today by our colleagues at the UN Development Programme on their work in ensuring the payment of Ebola workers.
In Sierra Leone, UNDP technical advisors already assisted the government with two nationwide payments in November of more than 12,000 Ebola response workers, while in Guinea and Liberia, efforts are underway to check lists of workers and reinforce existing payment systems.
The Head of UNDP, Helen Clark, stressed that the success in the response, down to the district level, depends on these women and men who are risking their lives every day to fight the disease and that paying them in a timely fashion was crucial.
More on the issue is available on the UNDP website.
Global Ebola Response Website