World Bank's Kim on Ebola: 'We must get to zero cases'

Washington, Nov 21: World Bank President Jim Yong Kim today warned that despite gains against the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the new outbreak in Mali is "very worrisome."

"We must get to zero cases. Ebola is not a disease where you can leave a few cases and say you've done enough," he said at a summit on the epidemic with the leaders of the United Nations, World Health Organisation and the International Monetary Fund. WHO head Margaret Chan, who is heading to Mali today, said the target of zero cases is imperative after the disease has killed nearly 5,500 people, nearly all in West Africa.

"We have to really move with speed and scale and have a no-regret policy," Chan said. "We must smother a little fire, a little smoke before it gets out of control." In Mali seven people have died in recent weeks, most linked to contact with a single infected 70-year-old Grand Imam from Guinea, who died in a Bamako clinic on 27 October.

AFP