Sierra Leone in better position today, new UN Eloba mission chief says

FREETOWN (Xinhua) - Sierra Leone is in a better position today than it was in the fight against Ebola virus, the new head of the United Nations' Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) said Friday.

In his maiden press conference since he assumed office, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said "we are now looking at one future response package at the second phase of the disease control and coordination."

"I am left with the optimism that Sierra Leone can make it but it will need a lot of effort from all of us," he said.

He reminded Sierra Leoneans not to be complacent as the situation is still bad because of the number of cases but believed that people now have a better understanding of the data.

Sierra Leone, one of the three West African countries worst affected by Ebola, reported nearly 250 new confirmed cases in the past week but the spread of the virus there may be slowing, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

"There are signs that case incidence may have leveled off in Sierra Leone, although with 248 new confirmed cases reported in the week to 4 January 2015, it remains by far the worst-affected country at present," the WHO said.

The new UN mission chief said "we will only be satisfied when we begin to register zero cases."

WHO special envoy, David Nabarro, said the UN has been able to mobilize enough funds to fight and eradicate the disease.

Nabarro disclosed that originally the UN appealed for more than a billion dollars in September which was revised to 1.4 billion dollars in October, of which about 1.1 billion dollars have been received, a gesture he described as "a good response".

He said they expected the rate of infection to drop considerably in a few weeks.

On Wednesday, the UN team had discussions with Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma on the progress of the Ebola fight.

UNMEER, the first-ever UN emergency health mission, is leading international efforts in the battle against Ebola. The epidemic has taken 8,235 lives out of 20,747 known cases worldwide over the past year, the WHO said in its update released on Wednesday.