(MENAFN- QNA) West African leaders called Tuesday during a conference in Brussels for greater efforts to wipe out Ebola as well as more help so their countries can recover from the epidemic.
An outbreak of the haemorrhagic fever has ravaged Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia for the last year, leading to more than 9,500 confirmed and suspected deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
"Our three countries are beginning to triumph over the deadly disease that has threatened the sovereignty of each of our states," said Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, warning, however, that more work is needed to bring new infection rates down to zero.
"This is the essential first step to economic recovery," she added.
"We should not assume the worst is over," said EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who opened the conference with a minute's silence for the victims of Ebola. "We are all too aware now of what a virulent and contagious disease this is." "Nobody can afford to drop their guard. The last mile may well be the hardest," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned in a statement.
The conference participants also discussed how to help Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia recover from the outbreak, which has decimated their economic growth and overwhelmed their health sectors, German Press Agency dpa reported.
Johnson Sirleaf said she was convinced after Tuesday's talks that the efforts to eradicate Ebola would be successful, but warned that the "more difficult task" would be finding the right strategies for economic recovery.
The three countries will jointly miss out on at least 1.6 billion dollars in economic growth in 2015 due to Ebola, according to recent World Bank estimates, while the broader cost to the region could reach 6 billion dollars.
The Washington-based lender announced that it will host a pledging conference at its regular spring meeting in mid-April.
Johnson Sirleaf also joined forces with the anti-poverty organization Oxfam to call on Tuesday for donors to support her government's call for 60 million dollars to fund water and sanitation facilities for schools.
"The lack of clean water, hand-washing and sanitation facilities are major stumbling blocks in helping our children develop life-changing habits which will enhance their health for the long term," the Liberian president said in a statement.
More than 150 delegations attended the Brussels talks, with 69 countries and major international organizations represented - amounting to more than 600 delegates, according to a European Commission official.
The work will continue on July 20-21, at an Ebola recovery and reconstruction conference being hosted by the African Union in Equatorial Guinea, the organization's Social Affairs Commissioner Mustapha Sidiki Kaloko announced at the start of the Brussels talks.
The meeting, in Malabo, is to focus on investment in public health, strengthening health systems and response to disease outbreaks, he said.
Stakeholders will also discuss the establishment of a "voluntary reserve health workforce that can be called on at any time to respond to health and emergency threats," as well as efforts to set up an African centre of disease control and prevention, Kaloko added.
"We all have to learn lessons from the Ebola outbreak , especially the fact that we were too late," said Germany's Ebola envoy Walter Lindner. "The most important thing is to react faster to a future crisis," he added.
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