ARTICLE: IN THE RACE AGAINST TIME, MEMBER STATES MUST INCREASE EFFORTS TO STOP EBOLA OUTBREAK In 1976, the Ebola virus (named after the Ebola River in Zaire) first emerged in Sudan and Zaire with the first outbreak of Ebola (Ebola-Sudan) infected over 284 people. The disease has a high risk of death, killing between 25 percent and 90 percent of those infected with the virus. In March 2014 a major Ebola outbreak in Guinea, a western African nation was reported, the disease then rapidly spread to the neighboring countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone. It is the largest Ebola outbreak ever documented, and the first recorded in that particular region.
The article for discussion titled “In the Race against Time Member States Must Increase Efforts to Stop Ebola Outbreak” illustrates the unpreparedness of the global community, inclusive of its international organizations, for the Ebola 2014 outbreak. ‘The Ebola outbreak is winning the race against attempts to contain it’, ‘Ebola got a head-start on us’ and ‘Time is our biggest enemy’ were some of the sentiments expressed by the head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) Anthony Bradbury’s briefing to a fifteen - nation council, highlighting the lack of risk prevention and risk mitigative measures in place to deal with this global pandemic.
However the crux of the article dealt with the need for global cooperation and increased humanitarian aid efforts towards preventing unavoidable deaths. Bradbury has claimed that the UNMEER has been playing the critical role of crisis manager, ultimately ensuring that “no gaps were left unfilled and that resources were allocated appropriately”, “emphasizing that failure was inconceivable” and “unacceptable”. The focus of the UN is not now just to prevent and mitigate the outcomes of the virus but also to deal with “devastating psychological effects of the virus”. The outbreak has ignited fear, panic and encouraged
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