Banbury: "Not enough is being done to fight Ebola"

DW: Mr Banbury, after you saw the situation on the ground, in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, do think that UNMEER will meet its targets to treat 70 percent of the infected people within 60 days?

Treating 70 percent of the infected people within 60 days, is key to turning this crisis around, but it's also an extremely ambitious target. We are now matching up what is required to achieve that target, with the resources that we expect to be available not just from UNMEER, but all the partners contributing to [fighting] the Ebola crisis, to see what we need to do to close the gap and reach that target.

But after you have visited Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, how confident are you that you can really make it?

What I was most struck by, was the terrible situation that the people of those countries are in as a result of this disease. It's heartbreaking. There are such great risks for the people and the economies. The international community, including UNMEER, needs to find a way to bring this crisis to an end and stop this disease from killing people in those countries.

Are you getting the resources that you need?

The resources are starting to come in. Of course, the whole world, in retrospect wishes it had moved faster, but now you see a more rapid mobilization. But not enough is being done. We need more countries to contribute more human resources and other resources like treatment units and laboratories for testing. We need more health care workers, helicopters, financial resources to be given to aid agencies and we need it all today.

More people have now been infected outside Africa. The latest case is a health worker in the US. Do you think that could make western countries to dedicate more of their resources towards fighting Ebola?

I think the world now recognizes that the Ebola crisis in West Africa is a grave threat, not just to the people of those countries, but to the people of the region and beyond. The best way to protect all the countries and the people of the world, is to stop Ebola in the location of the current outbreak.

Health workers have threatened to go on strike in Liberia. What effect would that have on efforts to fight Ebola?

The possibility of health care workers going on strike would of course be devastating to efforts to fight the disease. But the world has a very strong obligation, as well as to act in its own self interest, to ensure that the national workers, who work on the frontline of fighting this disease, are paid. It's the very least we can do. And to make sure they have the equipment to keep themselves safe when they're working. UNMEER is going to work very hard to make sure that not just health care workers, but people working on burial teams and people doing contact tracing are paid properly. UNMEER is going to work with partners like the World Bank, governments and the UN Development Program, to make sure that happens.

Anthony Banbury is the head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), based in Ghana.

Interview by Daniel Pelz.