UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- The UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday that he is leaving Wednesday night to visit western African countries mostly affected by Ebola.
The visit will include Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Mali, the four most affected countries by the unprecedented epidemic outbreak, as well as Ghana, where the UN Ebola response mission headquarters is located, Ban said at a year-end press conference here.
"I want to see the response myself and show my solidarity with those affected," Ban said, urging for an even greater global response to fight the outbreak.
The UN Secretary-General will be accompanied by Director- General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Margaret Chan and his Ebola envoy David Nabarro and others.
Ban praised Ebola responders for their "heroic work", saying that local communities and national governments are highly engaged. "There has been an impressive outpouring of life-saving contributions from across Africa and across the world. The Ebola response strategy is working, and we are beginning to see improvements," he said.
However, Ban noted that it is not the time to ease up on our efforts. "As long as there is one case of Ebola, the risk remains. We must do everything we can to get to zero," he stressed.
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