Liberia President, John Sirleaf Calls For Global Fight Against Ebola

Posted by African Examiner African News, education, Latest Headlines, News Sunday, October 19th, 2014

As the Liberia still battles with the outbreak of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), its President, Mrs Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has asserted the entire world is a stakeholder in the war against the virus.

Mrs Sirleaf made this known Sunday in a “letter to the world” which was broadcast on the BBC. The Liberian President declared EVD “respects no borders”, thereby urging every country to do all it could to join the fight against the virus scourge.

President Sirleaf warned that a generation of Africans were at risk of “being lost to economic catastrophe”. She added that the fight against the disease required a commitment from every nation that has the capacity to help, either with emergency funds, medical supplies or clinical expertise.

“We all have a stake in the battle against Ebola; it is the duty of all of us, as global citizens, to send a message that we will not leave millions of West Africans to fend for themselves”, the President pleaded.

President Johnson Sirleaf posited it was not a coincidence that Ebola had taken hold in “three fragile states… all battling to overcome the effects of interconnected wars”.

“Ebola is not just a health crisis; across West Africa, a generation of young people risk being lost to an economic catastrophe” said the Liberian President.

She also informed that Liberia had about 3,000 qualified doctors at the start of the civil war in the late 1980s, while at the end (in 2003) it was left only with 12.

Liberia is the Ebola worst – hit in West African, since its outbreak in March this year. The World Health Organization (WHO) figures indicate over 4,500 has been killed in the world, by EVD. It said the country (Liberia) has recorded over 2,000 casualties.