UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has announced to have established a UN mission to combat Ebola with the advance teams to be deployed to West Africa by Monday.

The UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) will “provide the operational framework and unity of purpose to ensure the rapid, effective and coherent action necessary to stop the outbreak, to treat the infected, to ensure essential services, to preserve stability and to prevent the spread to countries currently unaffected”, Xinhua quoted UN chief’s spokesperson as saying.

“I have issued instructions that UNMEER advance teams deploy to the mission headquarters in Ghana and to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone by Monday,” he said.

Ban said he will appoint a special representative to head the mission and accelerate support to the countries and people most affected by the Ebola crisis.

On Thursday, the Security Council passed a resolution, which declared the Ebola virus outbreak a threat to international peace and security.

Earlier this week, the world organisation outlined a set of critical needs totaling almost 1 billion U.S. dollars over the next six months.

The Ebola outbreak was first confirmed in Guinea March 22 and soon spread to neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone. Since the outbreak, the virus has killed at least 2,600 people in West Africa and nearly twice as many have been infected, according to the WHO. The number of cases is doubling every three weeks.

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