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Red Cross urges vigilance over Ebola spread during holiday season

December 11, 2014

The Red Cross has warned of a possible rise in Ebola cases in West Africa during the holiday season. The organisation urged people to be vigiliant if they are planning to travel over Christmas and New Year.

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Porträt - Elhadj As Sy
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. di Nolfi

The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) held a news conference on Thursday to make the public aware of the risk of the spread of Ebola during the festive season.

IFRC Secretary General Elhadj As Sy (pictured above) said an increase in cases in West Africa was not inevitable, but a real risk as people travel across the region during the holidays.

"Now is the time to be even more vigilant," he told an audience at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. "We all welcome the plateauing and the signs of declines we are seeing in some places ... but that should not be a reason for complacency."

"Our best bet right now is to count on behaviours, attitudes, community mobilisation, treatment, safe and dignified burials," he added.

Latest World Health Organization (WHO) figures show Ebola infection rates appear to be slowing in Liberia and Guinea, but are still raging in Sierra Leone.

Worst epidemic in history

Ebola is an often fatal disease which causes fever, vomiting, diarrhoea and bleeding. The current outbreak is the largest on record and has killed around 6,400 people out of nearly 18,000 cases.

The virus is easily spread through contact with the body fluids of an infected person. Suspected and confirmed cases need to be quarantined or cared for in isolation to reduce the further spread of the deadly disease.

IFRC head Elhadj As Sy said since many West Africans traditionally travel from urban areas to their rural homes at this time of the year, the threat of wider contagion was increased.

"If we have social gatherings and movement of people... there may be increased risk," he said.

The IFRC currently has around 11,000 volunteers in the three countries worst hit by the Ebola epidemic - Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

lw/mg (AFP, Reuters)