Ebola Update - Noon Briefing (8 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 (8 December 2014).
(Update)
The fight against Ebola got a boost today with the arrival of 20,000 sets of Personal Protective Equipment from the Japan Disaster Relief Team.
This is the first batch of 700,000 [sets] of such equipment committed by the Government of Japan to the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER). The equipment should help provide critical protection to healthcare workers in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Mali.
At the official handover ceremony this morning in Accra, the head of the UN mission Anthony Banbury thanked the Government of Japan and stressed the need for continued contributions from partners around the world to keep up the fight.
Meanwhile, the peacekeeper from the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), who tested positive for the Ebola Virus Disease on 3 December, was evacuated from the US-run Ebola Treatment Unit in Monrovia to the Netherlands on Saturday.
Karin Landgren, the head of that Mission, said that she was encouraged that the medical evacuation process was organized quickly and efficiently and that the patient, who was in stable condition, will receive the best possible treatment in a Dutch medical facility.
UNICEF (Including on Ebola)
And the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has declared 2014 as a devastating year for children. In a press release issued today, the agency said that globally, an estimated 230 million children are currently living in countries and areas affected by armed conflict, including some 15 million of them in the Central African Republic, Iraq, South Sudan, Palestine, Syria and Ukraine.
There have also been significant new threats to children’s health and well-being, most notably in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where as you know, the Ebola outbreak has orphaned thousands of children and kept an estimated 5 million children from attending schools.
UNICEF says that, despite the tremendous challenges, the agency and its partners continue to provide life-saving assistance and other critical services, such as education and emotional support for children growing up in some of the most dangerous places on earth.
And more information is available on the UNICEF website.
Global Ebola Response Website