Are we losing the race against Ebola?

The ebola outbreak is ‘winning the race’ and we are running out of time to contain it. That is the message from Anthony Banbury, the head of the UN’s ebola mission, who has painted a damning picture of the international community’s failure to stop the advance of the virus.

Speaking to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Anthony Banbury warned “we either stop Ebola now or we face an entirely unprecedented situation for which we do not have a plan.”

He added: “the best way, the very best way to protect the people of non-infected countries is by helping the people of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to stop Ebola now where it is.”

It follows new projections from the World Health Organisation that say the infection rate could rise to 10,000 new cases a week, by December.

So why is this particular outbreak proving too difficult to bring under control?

Presenter: Mike Hanna

Guests:

Meinie Nicolai – the president of Doctors Without Borders in Belgium.

Ravi Gupta – a molecular virologist and clinician scientist in virology at the University College London.

Robert Quigley – the regional medical director and vice-president of medical assistance at International SOS.