Mr. Secretary-General, Your Excellencies, Administrator Clark, Ladies and Gentlemen.
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Today, these three countries face a dual challenge.
“We choose as our theme: “Sports Development in Post Ebola Recovery” because of the devastation the EVD continues to impact on sports in Sierra Leone“.
Recovery, though, is not enough.
The case has baffled officials since Memaigar lived far from the hotspots of the epidemic on the borders with Guinea and Sierra Leone, and was not known to have been in contact with any travellers.
Around 30 people are still being infected with Ebola every week, but the countries want to turn their attention now on rebuilding health care and restoring livelihoods.
The presidents of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone are appealing at a United Nations conference for $3.2 billion to help their countries recover.
Yet more evidence of the maternal mortality-Ebola nexus.
SANJAYA SENANAYAKE: It shows something that we were already aware of, that the global response to the Ebola outbreak was inadequate. We must strengthen the entire health system to achieve universal coverage and end preventable deaths.
In the lead-up to a major fund-raising conference for Ebola recovery, the World Health Organization (WHO) called the rebuilding of the national health systems in West Africa a critical priority.
Among other things, it said senior WHO leaders let political considerations sway their decision-making, explaining that economic concerns and “country politics” slowed the declaration of a public health emergency – a key step that acts as an worldwide distress signal. By then, the virus had spread to four West African countries, and casualties were beginning to arrive in the United States and Europe.
They say that the time to act is now because “this is a defining moment for the health of the global community”. But disease surveillance can not happen in a vacuum.
“I am not prepared to return to the Ebola treatment units anymore!” Now many experts and policymakers are calling for a faster, more agile and effective response for when the next epidemic strikes.
The source of the new outbreak remains a mystery, with the World Health Organization describing the cluster as “separate” from the main epidemic.
We expect to have the design ready later this year, to inform the G20 and the UN High-Level Panel.
“Therefore, as we celebrate World Sports Journalists Day with millions of our colleagues around the world, I urge all local Sports Journalists to strive for excellence in your professional work”.
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IT HAS BEEN CONFIRMED that the school where the boy attended as a 10th grader recently travelled to Zorzor in Lofa county bordering Guinea, an infested country for a sporting event but Abraham’s Uncle insists that his Nephew did not travel with the school.
