UN commends Ghana's role in ending Ebola in West Africa

The United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has commended highly the role Ghana played in ensuring an end to the deadly Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the West African sub-region.

This took place in a telephone interview between the Secretary General and the Ghanaian President, John Dramani Mahama, on Thursday, a release from the presidency has said.

"In a phone call to President Mahama on Thursday following the declaration by the WHO that West Africa was Ebola-free, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon praised President Mahama and the Ghanaian people for accepting to host the UNMEER mission and allowing Accra to be used as a staging post in the fight against Ebola," the release stated.

After President Mahama sounded the alarm bells at the UN General Assembly in 2014 about the threat posed by the EVD outbreak, Ghana accepted to host the headquarters of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) which coordinated the global response to the outbreak.

Thursday, the WHO announced an end to the disease in the sub-region as Liberia was the last country to have experienced any incident, not recording any more, with officials cautioning it will take some more months for the world to be considered free of the disease that claimed more than 11,300 lives in over two years.

The Secretary General said Ghana's gesture of selflessness was critical in facilitating the international response against Ebola and contributing to the end of Ebola in the three most affected countries.

Reports from Sierra Leone, Friday, however pointed to a fresh incident of one Ebola related death, while dozens were feared exposed to the disease again. Enditem