China to continue aid fight against Ebola: Xi to UN Chief
August 16, 2014, 5:38 am

Global medical charity Doctors Without Borders has said the outbreak is like “wartime” and control could take around six months [Xinhua]

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the magnitude of the outbreak has been vastly underestimated and will require “extraordinary measures, on a massive scale” if it is to be contained.

“China will continue to make joint efforts with the international community to prevent and control the outbreak,” Xi said.

“The top priority is to have a scientific understanding of the epidemic, help African countries cope, and to strengthen monitoring and control,” he added.

The Chinese President was meeting the UN Chief before the opening ceremony of the 2nd Summer Youth Olympic Games scheduled in Nanjing, capital of east China’s Jiangsu Province.

Global medical charity Doctors Without Borders has said the outbreak is like “wartime” and control could take around six months.

“I really had the feeling that it is a wartime, in terms of fear,” said Joanne Liu, international president of Doctors Without Borders.

The crisis continues to escalate, with 1,975 cases and 1145 deaths reported.

China has sent multiple teams of medical experts and emergency humanitarian aid worth nearly $5 million to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the worst-affected in West Africa.

China’s medical teams in the countries are working with local staff, Xi told Ban.

In the light of a serious crunch of medical infrastructure in the affected regions, a Chinese plane carrying supplies worth 30 million yuan ($4.9 million) touched down in the three African nations on Monday. The supplies include protective clothes, gloves, disinfectants, thermo-detectors and medicines.

Even as both the WHO and Doctors Without Borders warned of the severe dangers to medical staff, among Ebola’s most immediate victims, China has sent three expert teams composed of epidemiologists and specialists in disinfection and protection to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The Chinese ambassador to Sierra Leone said on Monday that eight Chinese medical workers who had been treating Ebola patients had been placed in quarantine for the past two weeks in the capital.

Meanwhile, Saudia Arabia and Ivory Coast have banned all passenger flights from the three countries hit the worst by the spread of Ebola: Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

TBP and Agencies