UN Ebola chief raises ‘nightmare’ prospect that virus could mutate and become airborne if it is not quickly brought under control
UN warns Ebola virus currently plaguing West Africa could become airborne
The longer it moves between human hosts the greater possibility of mutation
The risk grows the longer virus is living within the human ‘melting pot’
NGOs have said the Ebola virus is currently infecting five people every hour
More than 3,300 people have died from Ebola since the outbreak first began
Officials call for 1,000 new Sierra Leone isolation centres to contain virus
By Corey Charlton
DailyMailUK
2 October 2014
The longer the Ebola epidemic continues infecting people unabated the higher the chances it will mutate and become airborne, the UN’s Ebola response chief has warned.
Anthony Banbury, the Secretary General’s Special Representative, has said there is a ‘nightmare’ prospect the deadly disease will become airborne if it continues infecting new hosts.
His comments come as organisations battling the crisis in West Africa warn that the international community has just four weeks to stop it before it spirals ‘completely out of control’.
Mr Banbury told the Telegraph that aid workers were fighting a race against time amid fears it will begin to mutate.
He said: ‘The longer it moves around in human hosts in the virulent melting pot that is West Africa, the more chances increase that it could mutate.
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