WHO says drawing up 6-9 month strategy to combat Ebola

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday that it had drawn up a draft strategy plan to combat Ebola in West Africa over the next six to nine months, implying that it does not expect to halt the epidemic this year.

"WHO is working on an Ebola road map document, it's really an operational document how to fight Ebola," WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told a news briefing in Geneva. "It details the strategy for WHO and partners for six to nine months to come."

Asked whether the timeline meant that the United Nations health agency expected the epidemic now raging in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to continue until 2015, she said: "Frankly no one knows when this outbreak of Ebola will end."