BBC news Ebola Crisis:
1 December 2014 Last updated at 05:06 ET Share this pageEmail Print Share this page
Ebola crisis: Huge risk of spread - UN's Tony BanburyBy Mark Doyle
BBC international development correspondent, in Freetown
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Tony Banbury: "The goal is absolutely zero human cases of Ebola"
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The head of the UN Ebola response mission in West Africa has told the BBC there is still a "huge risk" the deadly disease could spread to other parts of the world.
Tony Banbury declined to say if targets he had set in the fight against Ebola, to be achieved by Monday, had been met.
The targets were for the proportion of people being treated and for the safe burial of highly infectious bodies.
The UN boss was speaking in Freetown, one of the worst-affected areas.
On Sunday in Sierra Leone's capital, bulldozers were clearing large areas for a new burial ground.
At the clearance site, near a rubbish tip, car after car was arriving with bodies, and several hundred workers were digging graves.
In October, Mr Banbury told the UN Security Council that by 1 December, "70% of all those infected by the disease must be under treatment and 70% of the victims safely buried if the outbreak is to be successfully arrested".
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Andrew Harding returns to a British-run clinic criticised for not taking enough patients
This interim goal - the ultimate UN goal is zero Ebola deaths - was set to try to bend down the upward curve in the graph of cases.
Mr Banbury said the 70% targets were being met in "the vast majority" of areas in the three worst-affected countries - Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
"But in some areas", he said, "including here in Sierra Leone - especially in the capital Freetown and in the town of Port Loko - we are falling short. And it is in those areas where we really need to focus our assets and our capabilities".
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Ebola burials
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Many volunteer grave-diggers in Sierra Leone have seen their pre-Ebola jobs disappear
Bodies still contain high levels of the Ebola virus
At least 20% of new infections occur during burials, WHO says
Relatives perform religious rites including touching or washing the body
Safe burial process involves observing rituals differently, such as "dry ablution"
Volunteers with full protective clothing are trained to handle and disinfect bodies
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