High-level U.S. Delegation visits UNMEER Chief to discuss Ebola response

On the second day of his visit to West Africa, Thomas Shannon, Counselor to Secretary of State John Kerry, and a U.S. delegation visited the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) headquarters in Accra, Ghana to meet with UNMEER leadership on the ongoing crisis and thank the mission’s staff for their tireless work.

“One of the most important aspects of coming here today was to acknowledge the tremendous work that has been done by UNMEER, and especially its leadership and the team that has been such an important part of how it has addressed this crisis,” said Shannon, who was accompanied by U.S. Ambassador to Ghana Gene Cretz and USAID West Africa Regional Mission Director Alexander Deprez.

“We’re very thankful for that leadership, very thankful for that engagement, and very thankful for the opportunity to work with UNMEER and to continue to do so.”

In a meeting with UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, Counsellor Shannon congratulated UNMEER on its successful role in coordinating the Ebola response and battling the epidemic.

“The fact that this did not reach the worst case scenario has nothing to do with the virus, it has everything to do with the response, and the UN was central to that.”

SRSG Ould Cheikh Ahmed thanked Counsellor Shannon and the delegation for the Unites States’ strong commitment to the Ebola response, saying that “the U.S. government has given this crisis the priority it requires.”

While briefing the delegation on the Ebola response, the Chief of UNMEER said: “the response needs to be reorganized.  It is no longer a material issue, it’s an organizational issue,” referring to the medical and  logistical capacities now in place in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to rapidly test, isolate and treat infected Ebola patients, as well as safely bury the dead. 

The Ebola outbreak is declining in the region although getting to zero remains a challenge due to continued resistance in some places, particularly in Guinea.   To hunt the virus, UNMEER and its partners are scaling up the response in the remaining areas where it is still active.  The areas include the belt around the Guinean capital Conakry and the district of Port Loko in western Sierra Leone.

For example, UNMEER is currently fast-tracking surge efforts to establish an operations center in Guinea similar to the ones responding 24 hours a day in Liberia and Sierra Leone. It will be located in Forécariah, 100 km from south of Conakry, to coordinate and speed up response efforts.

Noting the U.S. commitment, SRSG Ould Cheikh Ahmed requested further American support in setting up strong alert and response systems in all three affected countries.  He said cross-border cooperation will be key in stamping the virus out of the region.

The United States has been a key partner in the fight against Ebola, with more than 10,000 U.S. government-supported civilian personnel on the ground, nearly $1 billion in assistance, 15 Ebola Treatment Units constructed, and 1,500 healthcare workers trained in the affected countries.

‘Still more work in front of us’

The Ebola outbreak, which began last March in Guinea, has led to over 9,440 deaths in the affected West African countries. While cases have started to decline, incidence rates have risen in Guinea and Sierra Leone in recent weeks.

After his meeting with SRSG Ould Cheikh Ahmed, Counsellor Shannon said that it’s too early for the fight against Ebola to letup, also noting the importance of the recovery phase of the Ebola response.

“The human loss is significant, but it could have been much worse, and in this process we have learned a lot about how to deal with these kinds of very dangerous health crises. But we still have a lot of work in front of us, especially in regard to rebuilding primary health capacity as health systems return to normal operations.”