‘Liberia existence threatened by Ebola’

Liberia’s Defense Minister Brownie Samukai has told the United Nations that his country’s “existence” is threatened by the Ebola epidemic.

“Liberia is facing a serious threat to its national existence,” he told the UN Security Council on Tuesday, adding that the deadly virus is “now spreading like wild fire, devouring everything in its path.”

As the hardest-hit country in West Africa, Liberia is bracing for more disaster with an expected increase in cases that have already left about 1,200 dead — over half of the 2,296 killed by the disease in the region.

Samukai further said that the outbreak has overwhelmed Liberia’s poor health system and the country lacks the “infrastructure, logistical capacity, professional expertise and financial resources to effectively address this disease.”

The comments come as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is planning a “high-level event” on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly later in September in an effort to “highlight the needs and required response” to the Ebola crisis, according to his spokesman.

The UN is demanding $600 million worth of supplies for West Africa while countries have been asked to dispatch doctors, nurses, beds, trucks, equipment and other vehicles to the affected nations.

The world body is seeking to halt the current Ebola outbreak within six to nine months.

Ebola is a form of hemorrhagic fever whose symptoms are diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding.

The virus spreads through direct contact with infected blood, feces or sweat. It can also be spread through sexual contact or the unprotected handling of contaminated corpses.

Ebola was first discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976 in an outbreak that killed 280 people.

It remains one of the world’s most virulent diseases, which kills between 25 to 90 percent of those who fall sick.

MR/AS/MHB