WASHINGTON, December 2 (Sputnik) – Over half a billion dollars is lacking to contain the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa, World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Margaret Harris told Sputnik Monday.
"$920 million has been funded, total need is $1.55 billion," Harris said when asked about main obstacles today to stop the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa.
In order to contain the virus, the construction of planned treatment facilities must be expedited along with providing "surveillance and contact tracing [of potential patients] at district level," the WHO spokesperson added.
"This will require a much bigger geographic presence in order to move to 100 percent [of treated cases]. This will be essential to slow down the cases in the western part of Sierra Leone and do something about the geographic spread in Guinea," Harris said.
Harris stressed that despite the recent success in fighting Ebola in West Africa, it is "inappropriate" to use the words "optimism" and "Ebola" in the same sentence.
"Ebola achieving low numbers is not good enough. We need to achieve zero cases," Harris emphasized.
The current Ebola virus outbreak began in Guinea in December 2013, spreading later to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal. In October, World Health Organization declared Nigeria and Senegal Ebola-free.
According to WHO's most recent data, 5,689 people have died from the Ebola disease outbreak, with 15,935 of confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of the virus having been reported.
