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Deadly Ebola outbreak now a "threat to world peace"

That’s according to the UN Security Council, which met today.

Sierra Leone Ebola AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

THE UN SECURITY Council has declared the Ebola outbreak a threat to world peace and called on countries to provide urgent aid to West Africa, the epicenter of the growing crisis.

The 15-member council unanimously adopted a resolution after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned that the number of Ebola infections — already more than 5,000 — was doubling every three weeks, notably in Liberia.

Public Health Emergency

It was only the third resolution on a public health emergency to be approved in the history of the United Nations. The council voted on measures to address the AIDS pandemic in 2000 and 2011.

The council heard a desperate appeal from Liberian medical aid worker Jackson Naimah for assistance to beat back the epidemic that has left at least 2,600 dead in West Africa.

“Please send your helicopters, your centers, your beds and your expert personnel,” said Naimah, speaking on video link from Monrovia.

We do not have the capacity to respond to this crisis. If the international community does not stand up, we will be wiped out.

In its resolution, the council declared that the “unprecedented extent of the Ebola outbreak in Africa constitutes a threat to international peace and security” and warned that “peacebuilding gains… could be reversed” in West Africa.

It called on countries to “provide urgent assistance, including deployable medical capabilities such as field hospitals” with staff and supplies, laboratories, clinics and to provide “support capabilities for airlift.”

The measure also urged nations to lift travel and border restrictions, and asked airlines and shipping companies to maintain their links with affected countries.

World Health Organisation director Margaret Chan said the Ebola outbreak is “likely the greatest peacetime challenge that the United Nations and its agencies have ever faced.”

Ebola mission

UN Ebola AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

The United Nations has said nearly $1 billion would be needed to defeat the worst-ever outbreak of Ebola, which is on track to infect 20,000 people by the end of the year.

Ban announced plans to set up a new UN mission to combat Ebola, with its headquarters in West Africa.

Our best estimate is that we need a 20-fold increase in assistance.

An “Ebola summit” is due to be held next week on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to further mobilize aid and resources to fight the disease.

The World Bank this week warned of a “potentially catastrophic blow” to the economies of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone — with growth rates slashed and government revenues hit hard.

Speaking on behalf of the medical aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Naimah described a crippling shortage of beds, forcing health care workers to turn away patients.

Right now, as I speak, people are sitting at the gates of our centers, literally begging for their lives.

The UN has set a goal of stopping the spread of Ebola within six to nine months but MSF has called the response so far “lethally inadequate.”

A special representative will be appointed soon by Ban to lead the Ebola crisis mission, which is to be the focal point for the international response to the epidemic.

The United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) will have its headquarters in the region, but not in the three most affected nations, where country offices will be opened.

- © AFP, 2014

Read: Obama says the Ebola crisis is ‘spiralling out of control’>

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    Mute Fergal McDonagh
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    Oct 29th 2014, 8:50 AM

    Hardly ‘fleeing’. Walking away at their own leisurely pace I’d imagine.

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    Mute Barney r
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    Oct 29th 2014, 9:40 AM

    Just dont have a nap on the way

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    Mute Dublinjonny_No.2
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    Oct 29th 2014, 8:49 AM

    Leave the kids and missus they would only slow me down

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    Mute Jenta deuto
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    Oct 29th 2014, 9:18 AM

    Would it not be possible to build a concrete reinforced gulley to divert the lava flow off course toward the ocean.

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    Mute family guy
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    Oct 29th 2014, 10:32 AM

    Jenta can’t tell if your being sarcastic or serious? That would never work as lava cools as it flows and would block any gully/channel and the lava would eventually flow over itself

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    Mute family guy
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    Oct 29th 2014, 10:35 AM

    Also your spending millions on something that would only be used maybe once in a hundred years, has to be maintained, would be an eye sore. There is a reason nobody has done it before.

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    Mute terayon100
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    Oct 29th 2014, 10:59 AM

    Right, I’ll get Tommy Lee Jones on it straight away!

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    Mute SeanieRyan
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    Oct 29th 2014, 1:16 PM

    They saved a town in Iceland with something similar a few decades ago.

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    Mute Ian Aston
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    Oct 29th 2014, 3:02 PM

    Why is there nobody poking sticks into it?

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    Mute Smiley
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    Oct 29th 2014, 10:46 AM

    At the risk of sounding cynical, Kilauea isn’t doing anything it hasn’t always done. That’s how an undersea volcano came to be an island. Kilauea’s lava flows are always really slow, above ground, so there’s time for people to evacuate in safety. Stunning. Would love to visit.

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    Mute Kevin Higgins
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    Oct 29th 2014, 11:41 AM

    I reckon all lava is deadly

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