Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has appealed for more international help in fighting the Ebola outbreak, which she said has killed more than 2,000 people in her country.
Sirleaf spoke about the terrible effects of Ebola in a "Letter to the World" that was broadcast by the BBC on Sunday, reports the Associated Press.
"This fight requires a commitment from every nation that has the capacity to help, whether that is with emergency funds, medical supplies or clinical expertise ... It is the duty of all of us, as global citizens, to send a message that we will not leave millions of West Africans to fend for themselves against an enemy that they do not know, and against whom they have little defense," Sirleaf said.
Elaborating further, Sirleaf said that a generation of young people in West Africa was at risk of being lost to an economic calamity, with harvests missed, markets shut and borders closed.
Noting that Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea were already in dire straits when the first Ebola outbreak began in West Africa, Sirleaf said that the virus spread quickly because of lack of sufficient emergency, medical and military services in the respective countries.
She added that Liberia, which had 3000 doctors before the civil war began, had just 36 doctors when the war ended 11 years ago.
Meanwhile, German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Sunday that the European Union could send a civilian mission to West Africa to help in the fight against Ebola, reports The Guardian.
In a meeting of health experts in Berlin, Steinmeier said that EU must be more fast and effective so that it can do a better job in the response against the virus.
Steinmeier said the civilian EU mission to West Africa, would give a chance to EU member countries that did not have a presence in the region," a platform to send medical personnel".
He also called for constituting a team of medical and logistical specialists by the EU to help in future emergencies worldwide.
