The Ebola virus rages on in three countries in West Africa and infection rates are doubling every three weeks. Two hundred people die each day, health systems are collapsing and economies are buckling under the strain. Seventy-five thousand kilometers (about 47,000 miles) away from this place, world leaders came together at the United Nations in New York to find solutions on containing this outbreak.
World leaders at the U.N. General Assembly agreed on these two main objectives:
- Stand in solidarity with the worst-hit countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone
- Fortify a global response that remains severely lacking
The U.N. Secretary-General has mobilized the entire U.N. system, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank, and is deploying its U.N. Ebola mission – or UNMEER – to the worst-hit countries.
“Dozens of countries and organizations, too many to mention by name, are making life-saving contributions. But even these are falling significantly short of the 20-fold surge that is required.” – Ban Ki-Moon, U.N. Secretary-General
The World Health Organization said earlier this week that the number of infections could reach 20,000 by November, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that at the current rate, there may be as many as 1.4 million infections by January.
For more on the Ebola epidemic, CCTV America was joined by Mead Over. He’s an author on world health issues and an economic-development analyst.
For more on the economic impact of the Ebola outbreak on West Africa, CCTV America was joined by John Panzer. He is an economist and the director of the World Bank’s Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management group.