UN mission team to combat Ebola arrives in Africa

, Sep 23: An advance team of the United Nations Mission for

Emergency Response (UNMEER) has arrived in Ghana's capital Accra to set up the operation's headquarters, a UN spokesman said on Monday.

Another advance team of the world body's first ever mission dealing with a public health crisis also arrived in Liberia, which has been hardest hit by the unprecedented outbreak, Xinhua quoted UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric as saying.

Dujarric also announced that the UN has established the Ebola Response Multi-Partner Trust Fund to ensure a coherent UN system contribution to the overall response.

According to the spokesman, the fund seeks contributions from member states, NGOs, businesses and individuals. Donors can also choose to channel their contributions directly to UN agencies participating in the response.

The UN World Health Organisation (WHO), in its latest Ebola update issued on Monday, said 5,843 cases and 2,803 deaths have been reported in the current outbreak by Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Nearly six months after the first Ebola case in west Africa was reported, UN General Assembly and the Security Council endorsed last week the UNMEER to contain the ongoing outbreak.

The mission will provide the operational framework to ensure the rapid, effective and coherent action necessary to stop the outbreak, to treat the infected, to ensure essential services and to prevent the spread to countries currently unaffected.

IANS