Ebola aid plan needs to go beyond medical care, says ECOWAS
West Africa's regional bloc on Friday called for international help to go beyond immediate medical care for Ebola-hit nations, warning that lives had been blighted by the epidemic. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said among issues that needed to be addressed were the needs of children orphaned by the disease and the economic impact of the crisis. Regional and international responses to Ebola should "extend beyond the obvious and tangible needs", said Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama, who is the current ECOWAS chairman. More than 2,000 orphans had been registered in Liberia alone, according to a statement released after a meeting of ECOWAS heads of state and government in Ghana's capital Accra on Thursday.
