Dramatic’ progress in fighting Ebola must be followed by long-term recovery efforts

UNITED NATIONS NEWS CENTRE                                                      April 16, 2015

WASHINGTON  --Intense efforts to control the Ebola outbreak in the three most-affected West African countries in will continue, the United Nations health chief said in Washington, DC today, adding that the international community is also looking for ways to build on dramatic recent progress by aiding with efforts aimed at recovery from the outbreak.

Tuesday 14 April 2015 was a happy day in Sierra Leone as children returned to school after many months             away, due to the Ebola outbreak. Photo: WHO/N. Alexander

“The goal is to help people and their communities to return to a normal life again,” said Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO). “It means that children are going back to school, women can once again shop in their local markets, and livelihoods are restored.”

She placed particular importance on rebuilding health systems and services to reduce risks that were inherent within weak systems. Such rebuilt systems should cover basic, essential, primary healthcare with sensitive surveillance to give early warnings of any dangerous outbreaks...

Bruce Aylward, Assistant Director-General of the WHO provided some impressions of the outbreak response from the front-lines. He underlined the importance of building resilient systems and helping the most-affected States – Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone – to recover. Yet, he stressed that it would be impossible to fully recover if the main task – eradicating Ebola – was not completed.
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