Ebola eradicated in 8 weeks, West African leaders vow
Leaders of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia vow to end outbreak by mid-April
The leaders of the countries devastated by the West Africa Ebola outbreak vowed at a summit in Guinea to eradicate the virus in the region by mid-April.
The outbreak, which began 14 months ago, has killed more than 9,200 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia and savaged their economies and government finances.
Guinea's President Alpha Conde and his Liberian and Sierra Leone counterparts Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Ernest Bai Koroma made the pledge on Sunday after closed talks in the Guinean capital, Conakry.
Hadja Saran Daraba Kaba, the secretary general of the Mano River Union bloc grouping the countries, said their presidents "commit to achieving zero Ebola infections within 60 days, effective today".
Reading a joint declaration from the leaders, Kaba said they "recognised the efforts that have been made by the member states and the international community which have resulted in the decline of Ebola infections and death rates".
The World Bank said in January the economic damage of the epidemic could run to US$6.2 billion, trimming an earlier estimate of US$25 billion.
However, Ebola "will continue to cripple the economies of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone even as transmission rates in the three countries show significant signs of slowing," it said.
The International Monetary Fund announced 10 days ago US$100 million in debt relief for the three countries and said it was preparing another US$160 million in concessional loans.
The leaders agreed to formulate a joint economic recovery plan to present at a conference on Ebola to be held by the European Union in Brussels on March 3, the Guinean presidency said in a statement.
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency response, said the dramatic drop in infections from the October peak showed that "the worst disaster scenario now seems far away".
"The number of new cases per week declined from an alarming level of nearly 1,000 in the bad times of the crisis to 145 confirmed cases in the course of the last week in the three countries," he said.
"However, despite the significant decrease of cases we must always remember that it all started with one case. We know how on the basis of experiences in the fight against polio, for example, that it is easier to go from 100 to 10 than from 10 to 0."
