#News: Liberian Leader Warns Ebola Risks Causing A 'Lost Generation'

[HuffingtonPost]

DAKAR, Oct 19 (Reuters) - The Ebola outbreak in West Africa  risks unleashing an economic catastrophe that will leave a "lost  generation" of young West Africans, Liberian President Ellen  Johnson Sirleaf said on Sunday, urging stronger international  action.                

The worst epidemic on record of the deadly virus has now  killed more than 4,500 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and  Guinea. Eight people have also died in Nigeria and cases have  been reported in the United States and Spain.                

Johnson Sirleaf said the international reaction to the  outbreak, detected in March deep in the forests of southern  Guinea, was initially "inconsistent and lacking in clear  direction or urgency."                

She said the international community had woken up to the  global health risk posed by the epidemic but called for help  from every nation with the capacity to do so, either in funding  or medical staff and supplies.                

"We all have a stake in the battle against Ebola," she said  in an open letter read on the BBC World Service.                

"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."                

Johnson Sirleaf, a former senior World Bank executive, said  Ebola was having a dire economic impact in the worst affected  countries, with harvests missed, markets shut and borders  closed. She said the outbreak had undone much of the recovery  achieved in the wake of Liberia's 1989-2003 civil war.                

"Ebola is not just a health crisis - across West Africa, a  generation of young people risk being lost to an economic  catastrophe," she said. "The time for talking or theorizing is  over. Only concerted action will save my country, and our  neighbors, from experiencing another national tragedy."                

Concern over the spread of Ebola in the United States --  where two nurses contracted the disease after treating a sick  Liberian man -- has buffeted financial markets in recent days.  President Barack Obama has appealed for Americans not to give in  to hysteria or fear.                

A former Nobel peace prize winner for her work on women's  rights, Johnson Sirleaf said the whole world had a stake in  fighting the virus.                

"This disease respects no borders. 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."     (; editing by Mark Heinrich)
Source: huffingtonPost