UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon praises Ebola healthcare workers

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UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday praised healthcare workers fighting the Ebola virus as he paid his first visit to Liberia and Sierra Leone following an outbreak that has killed nearly 7 000 people.

Ban paid tribute to local workers and the United Nations, but he singled out medics from the three countries at the heart of the epidemic who have fallen sick while treating patients.

He visited an Ebola treatment centre outside Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, and listened as 28-year-old nurse Rebecca Johnson told how she contracted Ebola while treating patients only to survive and then return to work.

"We will stand with Sierra Leone until this outbreak is under control and the country has recovered from its impact," Ban said, calling Johnson's story was "touching and moving".

 
Sierra Leone now accounts for more than half of the 18 603 total confirmed cases since the outbreak was detected in March in the forests of southeastern Guinea. It has since spread to six West African nations including Liberia.

Sierra Leone's government launched "Operation Western Area Surge" this week to contain the outbreak, which is raging hardest in western areas around the capital. Health workers passed street-by-street looking for the sick.

Ban later visited the British-run headquarters of the operation and held talks with President Ernest Bai Koroma.