UN bemoans lack of Ebola aid as U.S. airports begin advanced screening

Pledges of financial aid to fight Ebola have fallen far short of the $1 billion needed by the United Nations, with only one quarter of the amount raised, a UN official says. UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson also appealed for doctors, nurses and other health care personnel to come forward to work in desperately needed treatment centers to be set up in West Africa. The UN official appealed to the 193-nation General Assembly for more money and resources as the World Health Organization announced that the death toll had crossed the threshold of 4,000. Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea continue to be the epidemic’s epicenter, but this week saw the first Ebola death in the United States, while a nurse in Spain was fighting for her life after being infected while treating an Ebola patient who died.

Speed is of the essence. A contribution within days is more important than a larger contribution within weeks.

UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson

Meanwhile, New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport will step up efforts to detect Ebola today. Teams armed with thermal guns and questionnaires will screen travelers from West African countries hit hardest by the outbreak. JFK Airport is the first of five U.S. airports to start enhanced screening of U.S.-bound travelers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where most of the outbreak’s more than 4,000 deaths have occurred. In Brazil, health officials on Friday quarantined a Guinean man feared to have Ebola, but stressed it was a precautionary measure and the man no longer had a fever or other symptoms. The 47-year-old man had arrived from Africa last month.

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