MR hands over 1mn surgical gloves to WHO

President Mahinda Rajapaksa today handed over one million surgical gloves to the World Health Organisation (WHO) as Sri Lanka's contribution toward the global effort in combating the Ebola outbreak in Africa.

President Rajapaksa handed over the gloves that were produced by the Hayleys Group of Companies, to WHO Country Representative in Sri Lanka, Dr. Firdosi Mehta, at Temple Trees.

The current Ebola outbreak was first reported in March 2014 in Guinea, after which it had spread rapidly in several West African countries, including Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. Congo has become the latest African country to confirm the outbreak.

According to a WHO estimate, Ebola had killed more than 2,400 people out of nearly 5,000 suspected and confirmed cases.

The WHO on Tuesday warned that the numbers of new cases “may be approaching an exponential growth rate and could be doubling every three weeks,” and that it may cost as much as US$1 billion to bring the epidemic under control. (Darshana Sanjeewa)