UN Confronts Deadly Ebola Epidermic

United Nations - World leaders gathered at the
United Nations heard dire warnings anda
desperate pleas for assistance Thursday as the
deadly Ebola virus forced Sierra Leone to
quarantine a million people.
US President Barack Obama led calls for a
ramped up response to the growing West African
outbreak, urging governments, businesses and
international organizations to join the fight.
The United Nations did win fresh pledges of
support, and the Group of Seven nations
announced it would keep open vital air and sea
links with Ebola-hit countries in West Africa.
Also Read: Obama urges world to do more to
tackle Ebola
But Obama warned: "We are not doing enough" -
and UN officials said a 20-fold surge in
assistance is needed to come to grips with an
outbreak that has killed close to 3 000 people
"Right now, everybody has the best of intentions,
but people are not putting the kinds of resources
necessary to put a stop to this epidemic," he
said, on the sidelines of the UN General
Assembly.
'Ebola is winning'
Health experts agreed. "Today, Ebola is winning,"
said Joanne Liu, president of the aid group
Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
"The reality on the ground today is this: the
promised surge has not yet delivered," she
warned.
Health systems in the worst-hit countries of
Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea have been
overwhelmed by the epidemic and are in dire
need of doctors, nurses, medical equipment and
supplies.
Canada announced a contribution of $27 million
dollars to the effort and France said it has set
aside 70 million euros in a battle that the United
Nations estimates will require close to one billion
dollars.
The European Union said it would add 30 million
euros to the current 150 million euros it has
provided to fight Ebola.
UN officials could not provide an immediate tally
of the total pledges made at the UN meeting but
the UN's coordinator for Ebola, David Nabarro,
said countries had "responded with generosity."
'Disease of the world '
Sierra Leone on Thursday took the drastic step
of putting more than one million people in five
districts under quarantine-- the largest open-
ended lockdown in the Ebola outbreak.
"My country is at the battlefront of one of the
biggest life and death challenges facing the
global human community," Sierra Leone's
President Ernest Bai Koroma warned by video
link from Freetown.
"Ebola is not only a disease of Sierra Leone and
its neighbors, it is a disease of the world."
The northern districts of Port Loko and Bombali
have been closed off indefinitely along with the
southern district of Moyamba -- effectively
sealing in around 1.2 million people.
With the eastern districts of Kenema and
Kailahun already under quarantine, more than a
third of the population of six million -- in five of
the nation's 14 districts -- now finds itself
unable to move freely.
In New York, the G7 foreign ministers pledged to
work to maintain transport links with the Ebola-
hit countries to allow much-needed help to
reach those in need.
"We warn that although the spread of Ebola
must be contained, affected countries must not
be isolated," said the G7 -- Britain, Canada,
France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United
States.
Several airlines moved in late August to suspend
flights to the three affected countries, although
some have since resumed.
A UN mission on Ebola set up last week is due
to deploy in West Africa on Sunday, bringing
supplies and equipment including protective
suits, trucks, helicopters and other aircraft.
The United States is sending 3,000 troops to
Liberia to help battle the contagion and has
mobilized its experts from the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention to help beat
back the virus.
The CDC estimates that cases in Liberia and
Sierra Leone could rocket to 1.4 million by
January -- in a worst-case scenario based on
data obtained before the world ramped up its
response.
World Bank president Jim Kim said the "spread,
the magnitude and the complexity of the Ebola
crisis is like nothing we have ever seen" and
warned it could lead to the "potential meltdown
of the continent."