Cooler box-equipped motorbikes donated to UN will speed up Ebola testing process in West Africa

UNITED NATIONS NEWS CENTRE                                                                             Dec. 4, 2014
Four hundred motorbikes equipped with cooler boxes will help speed up deliveries of blood samples to laboratories from remote areas of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and reduce the waiting time for Ebola test results, thanks to a donation today from Germany to the United Nations.

Four hundred cooler box-equipped motorbikes for the Ebola Response were officially handed over to the UN Humanitarian Response Depot by German Ambassador to Ghana Ruediger John, and will be used to bring blood samples to labs in the most affected areas of Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. UNMEER Photo/Martine Perret

At UN Headquarters, meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters that the immediate priorities of the United Nations are to stop the virus and to treat all the people who have Ebola. “We have to ensure that all essential services are provided, and also we have to help them preserve their social and political stability, and keeping a further outbreak from happening.”

In the long run, the Secretary-General emphasized the importance of countries to have sound, robust health systems. He was speaking on the eve of a special high-level meeting of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Friday to examine the threat Ebola outbreak poses to sustainable development and possible solutions to strengthen the capacity of the affected countries to deal with future health shocks.

Meanwhile, the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) said that a member of its military personnel has tested positive for the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) and that test came back yesterday. The patient is receiving treatment at an Ebola Treatment Unit in Monrovia. The latest is the third case of Ebola in the mission.

Read complete press release.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=49512#.VIGb_8lQufg