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 The outbreak, first identified in Guinea's remote southeast in early
2014, has struck six West African nations, with Guinea, Sierra Leone
and Liberia bearing the brunt of the 20,000 infections and nearly
8,000 dead.
Faced with criticism the world was not doing enough, U.N. Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon set up the U.N. Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER)
mission in September to coordinate global efforts.
"We have not come anywhere close to ending the crisis. We’ve done a
lot in 90 days in a very successful response but we have a long and
difficult way to go," Anthony Banbury told reporters in Accra, where
the U.N. mission is based.
"It's going to go on for not just weeks but some months more. But I
believe we will do it in 2015 and we’re going to do it by working
very closely not just with governments of the countries but the
communities," he said.
Banbury will be replaced by veteran humanitarian official Ould
Cheikh Ahmed of Mauritania on Saturday.
A spike of cases in Sierra Leone meant UNMEER missed its target of
ensuring that by early December 70 percent of all Ebola patients
were being treated in isolation units and 70 percent of all those
who died from Ebola were buried properly.
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Banbury said there were now enough functioning treatment centers in
the region.
The target of 100 percent safe burials by end of January 2015 was on
track now that there were some 254 safe burial teams operating in
the affected countries.
Six other countries, including Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, the United
States, Spain and Britain, have reported cases imported from the
worst affected countries.
Last week, a nurse was diagnosed with the virus in Britain upon her
return from Sierra Leone. She is being treated with blood plasma
from a survivor of the virus and an experimental antiviral drug,
according to the London hospital treating her.
(Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; Editing by David Lewis and Robin Pomeroy)
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