By Abebech Tamene

ADDIS ABABA

 Ethiopia will deploy 200 health professionals to Ebola-stricken countries in West Africa to help fight the virus, Health Minister Keseteberhan Admassu has said.

"Ethiopia will send the professionals to the areas in two rounds," Admassu told a press conference on Friday.

He described the deployment as a "sign of solidarity" with Ebola-stricken states.

Admassu said the mission will include medical doctors, nurses, field epidemiologists, environmental health professionals and public health specialists.

"Our support to West Africa will mainly focus on three areas; case management, supporting disease surveillance in the affected  countries and proper organization of community care, which is the most important intervention that Ethiopia is better able to deliver," he said.

The Health Minister said that the Ethiopian government has also offered $500,000 to help facilitate the Ebola response in the affected countries.

In recent months, Ebola – a contagious disease for which there is no known treatment or cure – has killed 4,877 people, mostly from West Africa, according to the WHO.

Of these, 4,868 were reported in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia alone.

A tropical fever that first appeared in 1976 in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ebola can be transmitted to humans from wild animals.

It can also reportedly spread through contact with the body fluids of infected persons or of those who have succumbed to the virus.

Chairperson of the African Union (A.U.) Commission Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has recently called on African leaders to deploy more medical volunteers to assist the Ebola-affected countries.

www.aa.com.tr/en