Yahoo – AFP,
Ola Awoniyi with Bryan Mcmanus in Luxembourg
A teacher
demonstrates washing procedures to pupils prevent the spread of the
Ebola virus
at a school in Lagos on October 8, 2014 (AFP Photo/Pius Utomi Ekpei)
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Abuja (AFP)
- Nigeria was declared Ebola-free on Monday in a "spectacular
success" in the battle to contain the spread of a virus which is
devastating Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia where more than 4,500 people have
died.
The World
Health Organization said Nigeria -- Africa's most populous country where eight
deaths had sparked fears of a rapid spread through its teeming cities -- had
shown the world "that Ebola can be contained".
Another
west African nation, Senegal, was declared free of the virus on Friday.
Liberian
health workers at the NGO
Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors
Without Borders) Ebola treatment centre
in Monrovia on October 18, 2014 (AFP
Photo/Zoom Dosso)
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Amid
concerns that the global response has been too slow, the 28 EU nations agreed
to do more to get foreign medical staff onto the Ebola frontline.
They also
agreed to appoint an Ebola coordinator.
"The
person will be named in the coming days," French Foreign Minister Laurent
Fabius told reporters.
In the
United States, the absence of any new cases in the last five days prompted
cautious optimism from health authorities that the virus has been contained
there after a flawed initial response.
In another
encouraging piece of news, test results showed a Spanish nurse who was the
first person to contract the virus outside Africa appears to now be clear of
the disease after treatment.
But while
the rest of the world appeared to be winning the fight to keep Ebola at bay,
the three west African countries which account for the vast majority of the
4,500 deaths -- Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea -- were counting a rising
human and economic cost.
Liberian
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf warned Sunday that a generation of Africans was
at risk of "being lost to economic catastrophe" because of the
crisis.
The
"time for talking or theorising is over," she said in an open letter
published by the BBC.
"This
fight requires a commitment from every nation that has the capacity to help --
whether that is with emergency funds, medical supplies or clinical
expertise."
EU calls
for more funds
The WHO
declared Nigeria free of Ebola after 42 days elapsed without any new cases
among its 170 million citizens.
"The
virus is gone for now. The outbreak in Nigeria has been defeated," the
WHO's representative in Nigeria, Rui Gama Vaz, said.
"This
is a spectacular success story that shows to the world that Ebola can be
contained."
In
Luxembourg, the EU foreign ministers agreed the European Commission should
"guarantee appropriate care for international health responders".
They said
that should include the option of medical evacuation to ensure staff working in
the worst-hit countries receive the best care themselves.
That has
been a key stumbling block in trying to boost the number of foreign medical
workers prepared to work in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The
ministers also said there was a need to set up a pool of volunteer health
experts from EU states "for quick and targeted deployment in health
crises".
They also
called on the international community to meet the $1.0 billion (782 million
euros) sought by the UN, saying EU countries had put up around 500 million
euros so far.
The success
of Senegal and Nigeria in containing the virus is being studied by public
health specialists looking to contain the spread of the disease around the
world.
Some 10,000
people have been infected with the haemorrhagic fever for which there is no
vaccine or cure.
A Norwegian
woman who contracted the Ebola virus while working for Doctors Without Borders
in Sierra Leone has been cured after treatment in an isolation unit in Oslo,
the organisation said Monday.
"We
are very happy to learn that our colleague has been cured," said Jonas
Haagensen, a spokesman for the Norwegian branch of the organisation, also known
by its French name Medecins sans Frontieres.
In Havana,
Cuban President Raul Castro urged fellow Latin American leftist leaders to work
together to fight Ebola, saying the disease "threatens us all" as he
opened a summit on Monday.
Cuba has
sought to place itself at the forefront of the international response to the
Ebola epidemic, sending 165 doctors and nurses to west Africa to combat the
disease, with another 300 on the way.
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