UN chief welcomes Cuban response to Ebola in south Leone

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed on Friday the announcement by the Cuban government that it will be sending 165 medical personnel to Sierra Leone soon to assist in the response to Ebola.
In addition, the African Union has begun to mobilize medical personnel for the response, and the Government of Ghana has agreed to use Accra as a key hub for flights into and out of Monrovia, according to a statement attributable to Ban's spokesman.
Offers of cash, equipment and personnel from governments, NGOs and the private sector have also begun to materialize, the statement said.
The UN chief expressed gratitude to the US government for the continued support, including the announcement by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) last week of plans to make available additional USD 75 million and deploy more than 100 experts - most of them from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to the region in an effort to prevent, detect and halt the virus's spread.
Furthermore, the British government also announced that British military and humanitarian experts will set up a medical treatment centre for victims of the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone.
Ban welcomed these signs of solidarity, particularly the deployment of skilled medical teams, and called on more countries and organizations to move swiftly to support the Governments of the countries affected, through the WHO Road Map and a complete overview of requirements, which will be released by OCHA in Geneva on September 16.
The Secretary General has held a number of calls with world leaders seeking their support for the countries most affected - Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, as he continues to reach out to leaders around the world on this issue.
Ban also renewed his call for countries to refrain from closing their borders to people coming from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and for airlines and shipping companies to maintain transport links, isolating the countries risks causing more harm and delaying efforts to stop the Ebola virus, rather than preventing its spread, he stressed.
On Monday, the Secretary General activated the UN's crisis response mechanism for managing a system wide crisis, and instructed all UN Heads of Agencies and Departments to give top priority to working together in support of a unified, effective response.
UN teams on the ground are engaged in active support of the national efforts, providing health services, food, supplies and outreach to communities, it added.