As the Ebola outbreak continues to rage on in West Africa, the World Health Organization has reported is that the death toll for the disease has now risen to over 4000 people. The United Nations said on Friday that there are now 8,399 cases of Ebola recorded in seven countries, with deaths occurring in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and the United States.
In an earlier report, a special envoy for the United Nations said that the current global response to the Ebola crisis should increase 20-fold to be able to cope with the scale of infection. UN Ebola Coordinator, Dr. David Nabarro, said that a massive scale of mobilization is required or "it will be impossible to get this disease quickly under control, and the world will have to live with the Ebola virus forever." And urgent appeal to all countries was sent out asking that they act on the matter swiftly and also to be as generous as they can because, at this point, "A contribution within days is more important than larger contributions within weeks." At present, thousands of staff treatment centers, health workers, construction people, and community mobilizers are needed to augment the already strained resources. The United Nations is appealing for collective action against this "extraordinary challenge" saying that the virus is moving faster than the global response.
The head of the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), Anthony Banbury, told the assembly that, "The world must now act to help the people and governments of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. A failure to act now while we have a chance could lead to unpredictable but very dire consequences for the people of the countries and well beyond. As long as there is one case of Ebola in any one of these countries, no country is safe from the dangers posed by this deadly virus."