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Ebola At The General Assembly: How Can The UN Stop This Disease?

Ebola At The General Assembly: How Can The UN Stop This Disease?

On Thursday the United Nations General Assembly unanimously passed a resolution creating the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, or UNMEER. The Security Council similarly jumped on board, calling the outbreak “a threat to international peace and security.”  This is the first time the UN has taken such a step to combat a disease since the creation of UNAIDS in 1996.

In a statement Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon acknowledged the tremendous problem posed by the disease across West Africa, saying “The establishment of the UNMEER is just the beginning. We will need to stay engaged, and we will need to reach new heights of cooperation. No single State, and no single organization, can do this alone.”

In injecting themselves into the ongoing international debate on how to deal with the deadly disease, both the General Assembly and the Security Council ensured that the disease will become a major talking point at this week’s annual General Assembly meeting in New York.

This week includes unprecedented high level participation, with some 140 heads of state and government expected to attend.

The UNMEER resolution was an acknowledgment that what had begun as a domestic and regional problem had expanded and become a grave threat to to the entire world, putting it under the providence of the UN.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 5300 cases have led to more than 2600 deaths in West Africa since the outbreak began in December. Perhaps even more frightening, the number of affected individuals has been doubling every three weeks, a troubling exponential growth.

To put this in some context, if the trend were to continue unabated, more than 170,000 people would be affected by the end of the year.

Additionally, some analysts believe that the survival rate has been inflated due to the many statistical difficulties involved in outbreak tracking. This means that as infections increase, we may see a smaller number of affected individuals survive the disease when compared to the current over 50% survival rate. In previous outbreaks Ebola has killed “as many as 90%” of those infected.

In an effort to end this trend, UNMEER has already deployed advanced teams to Accra, Ghana, where the mission will be based. Ban’s plan going forward is ambitious, as he estimated that combating the disease will require a “20-fold increase in assistance,” and “totalling almost $1 billion (USD) over the next six months.”

Five Priority Areas

While light on specifics, Ban outlined five priority areas to the Security Council before the body voted on its own resolution. These areas were “stopping the outbreak, treating the infected, ensuring essential services, preserving stability and preventing further outbreaks.”

In addition to the creation of UNMEER, the international community must remain vigilant and continue to work on ways to fight the outbreak.

To start, experts have advised ending the de facto travel and trade ban on affected countries and areas. Instead of the intended consequence of quarantining the disease, it has hampered international aid efforts by making it difficult to transport workers and supplies where they are most badly needed.

The canceled flights and diminished trade have also had grave economic effects on already impoverished and reeling countries. Last week the World Bank estimated that in the short term, the disease could cost Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone between 2.1 and 3.4 percent of their respective GDPs, with long-term percentage drops potentially entering the double digits.

In one attempt to stem the disease’s spread, Sierra Leone, whose UN Ambassador called the disease a “global health emergency,” concluded a three day curfew on Sunday.

According to Al Jazeera, the intention of the curfew was to allow aid workers and doctors to visit every household in the country to check for the disease, along with collecting the ill and dead. Aid organization Doctors Without Borders argued that the curfew would instead lead individuals to conceal their illness.

Despite this criticism, the country’s emergency health authorities called the curfew a success, opting against renewing it “because its objectives have largely been met”.

While Sierra Leone’s approach may have a significant detractor in Doctors Without Borders, there is no doubt that the fight against Ebola will require significant innovation. Just what role the UN plays in, and how much individual countries are willing to commit to, this innovation promises to be a significant theme of the General Assembly week.

The response to the Secretary-General’s speed and initiative after Thursday’s revolution was widely positive, with representatives from more than 20 states and the European Union voicing their adamant support for both the initiative and collaborative effort to fight the disease.

Only time will tell whether the international community follows through on its promises and innovates to fight the disease or the immense human suffering fades into the background.

Andrew Friedman is a human rights attorney and freelance consultant who works and writes on legal reform and constitutional law with an emphasis on Africa. He can be reached via email at afriedm2@gmail.com or via twitter @AndrewBFriedman.