Work Bank chief calls for more volunteers to fight Ebola

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Oct. 28 (UPI) —

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim made an emotional plea Tuesday for at least 5,000 more medical workers to volunteer to contain the Ebola virus in West Africa.

"Right now, I’m very much worried about where we will find those healthcare workers. With the fear factor going out of control in so many places, I hope healthcare professionals will understand that when they took their oath to become a health care worker it was precisely for moments like this," he said while on a trip to Ethiopia with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and African Union chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

Ban noted that rates of transmission of the virus are running ahead of the international response to fight it, and added imposing travel restrictions to the affected countries — notably Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — would severely hamper efforts to contain the disease.

The World Health Organization said there have been 4,922 deaths thus far from the Ebola virus.