NEW YORK, November 21 (Sputnik) – Global efforts to halt the spread of Ebola are beginning to work in West Africa, but transmission rates are increasing in some remote areas, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters on Friday.
"There has been some welcome progress. Where the Ebola response strategy is implemented, the rate of new cases appears to be slowing. We are seeing the curve bending in enough places to give us hope," Ban said after meetings at the World Bank in Washington.
He stressed, however, that the results of the global effort to roll back the deadly Ebola outbreak were "uneven" and varied from region to region.
"The rate of transmission continues to increase in many places. We need more international responders, trained medical teams and volunteer health workers, especially in remote districts," Ban said.
The UN chief reiterated his warning about the "detrimental effect" that trade and travel restrictions would have on worst-hit countries in West Africa. In October, some airlines such as Air France and British Airways imposed a ban on flights arriving from Ebola-stricken countries including Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Senegal.
"We need to avoid travel bans, discrimination against health workers and other steps that would isolate countries when they need help most," the secretary-general explained.
Ebola has infected more than 15,000 people in West Africa, of whom more than 5,000 have died, mostly in the worst-affected countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Some cases have been reported in other parts of Africa, Europe and North America.
Although there is no officially approved cure for the disease, several countries, including Russia, are currently working on Ebola vaccines.
