High level meeting on Ebola expected Monday in Geneva



[ad_1]

As the Ebola crisis continues in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and international calls for a "reset" of the international response are needed, senior officials will meet in Geneva Monday for a high-level meeting jointly organized by the World Health Organization and the United Nations for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).

The meeting will be chaired by the Director General of WHO, Tedros Ghebreyesus, and UNOCHA Chief Mark Lowbad, in the presence of Congolese Minister of Health, Dr. Oly Ilunga. Other participants include David Gressly, recently appointed Ebola coordinator. representatives of the World Bank and UNICEF; the president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and people working in the DRC, where the number of cases is close to 2,500 and the death toll was 1,655 on Friday.

"It is important to organize this meeting and listen to local actors, especially the Congolese authorities," said Fadela Chaib of WHO. "It is time to work again, to galvanize again all the efforts of the international community to overcome this Ebola epidemic in the DRC."

The high-level meeting is an opportunity to discuss the response and not planned as a fundraiser, but it is under increasing pressure to declare the Ebola outbreak a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC ). The British Secretary of International Development, Rory Stewart, has warned that the answer would be inadequate and that a more aggressive approach would be necessary.

The meeting will be broadcast live on this link.

Image: OMS file

Related

[ad_2]
Source link