{"id":73587,"date":"2015-05-01T02:48:36","date_gmt":"2015-05-01T02:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=73587"},"modified":"2015-05-01T02:48:36","modified_gmt":"2015-05-01T02:48:36","slug":"ending-ebola-before-rainy-season-imperative-says-new-acting-head-of-unmeer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=73587","title":{"rendered":"Ending Ebola before rainy season imperative says new acting head of UNMEER"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Conakry, 30 April 2015 &#8211; In his first week as the Secretary-General\u2019s Acting Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), Peter Jan Graaff affirmed his commitment to stopping the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, but said the timeline for doing so is tight.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWe have made great progress in fighting the virus, but we are not done yet,\u201d said Graaff. \u201cThe rainy season is fast approaching, which will complicate efforts to contain the disease. We have a very small window of opportunity and that window is closing fast. We can\u2019t risk falling behind the virus again. We need to stay ahead of it, and eliminate it before it is too late.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/sem.lamtech.sl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Peter-Graaff-discusses-Ebola-issues-with-CEO-NERC-Paolo-Conteh-in-Freetown.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-73591\" src=\"http:\/\/sem.lamtech.sl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Peter-Graaff-discusses-Ebola-issues-with-CEO-NERC-Paolo-Conteh-in-Freetown.jpg\" alt=\"Peter Graaff discusses Ebola issues with CEO NERC, Paolo Conteh in Freetown\" width=\"344\" height=\"336\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Graaff has since October 2014 served as Ebola Crisis Manager for Liberia, during which time the country\u2019s Ebola case numbers dropped to zero. Liberia is currently counting down to 9 May, when it will be declared free of the Ebola Virus Disease if no new cases present themselves.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cUntil we reach zero cases in every country, Ebola still poses a threat to the region, and to the world. We must keep up our efforts over the next few weeks to trace and treat every last case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">As of 24 April, a total of 26,101 confirmed, probable and suspected cases of Ebola have been reported in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, with 10,824 deaths. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the decline in confirmed cases has halted over the last three weeks. In the week to 19 April, 33 confirmed cases were reported, compared with 37 and 30 in the preceding weeks.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Graaff succeeded Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed of Mauritania, who had served in the role since 4 January 2015. Ould Cheikh Ahmed was recently appointed the Secretary-General\u2019s Special Envoy for Yemen<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cPeter led Liberia to much success and I\u2019m confident he can achieve the same results in Guinea and Sierra Leone,\u201d said Ould Cheikh Ahmed. \u201cThe world is behind UNMEER, and UNMEER is behind the Ebola affected countries. Together, we will get to zero cases.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Prior to joining UNMEER, Graaff had worked extensively with the WHO across Africa, in Afghanistan and in Haiti. He also led the Civil Affairs and Development team for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>UNMEER<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Conakry, 30 April 2015 &#8211; In his first week as the Secretary-General\u2019s Acting Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":73588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671,751,10],"tags":[18461,20331,19556],"class_list":["post-73587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-global-news","category-health","tag-ebola","tag-peter-jan-graaff","tag-unmeer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/73588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}