Brussels, March 3, (dpa/GNA) - More than 600 people, including top European and African officials, are expected in Brussels on Tuesday for a conference on the fight against Ebola and reconstruction support for the countries worst affected.
An outbreak of the haemorrhagic fever has ravaged Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia over the last year, leading to more than 9,500 confirmed and suspected deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
"While the numbers of Ebola cases are now at a fraction of what they were last autumn, many cases remain at large," British Development Secretary Justine Greening said in Sierra Leone last week. "The virus is so dangerous that we cannot rest until we are down to zero."
But getting to that point is "becoming very, very complicated," an official from the European Commission warned, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"It really is the hardest part," David Nabarro, the United Nations Secretary General's special envoy on Ebola, said in Brussels on Monday evening.
"You have to find everybody who has got Ebola, you have to help them to get treated, you have to follow them very closely, and find all their contacts, with whom they have met over the last 21 days and you have to follow them carefully as well," he noted.
The one-day conference, being held in Brussels under the patronage of the European Union, will be an opportunity to remind donors to fulfill their financial pledges for the fight against Ebola and look at how to eradicate the disease, the commission official said.
A reminder of the disease's pervasiveness came at the weekend, when the vice-president of Sierra Leone was reported to have placed himself in quarantine after one of his bodyguards died of Ebola.
The conference will also be about how to help Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia recover from the outbreak, which has decimated their economic growth and overwhelmed their health sectors.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf joined forces with the anti-poverty organization Oxfam to call on Tuesday for donors to support her government's call for 60 million dollars to fund water and sanitation facilities for schools.
"The lack of clean water, hand washing and sanitation facilities are major stumbling blocks in helping our children develop life-changing habits which will enhance their health for the long term," Sirleaf said in a statement.
She is due to attend the Brussels conference, along with the presidents of Guinea and Sierra Leone.
More than 150 delegations are expected, with 69 countries and major international organizations represented - amounting to more than 600 delegates, the commission official said.
GNA
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