BEIJING: A top Red Cross official said on Wednesday that he is confident the Ebola epidemic that has killed thousands of people in West Africa can be contained within four to six months.

Elhadj As Sy, secretary general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told a news conference in Beijing that the time frame is possible if there is “good isolation, good treatment of the cases which are confirmed,” and “safe burials” of those who die from the disease.

The Red Cross is holding its Asia-Pacific regional conference, held every four years, in the Chinese capital.

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Sy praised China for contributing relief items, laboratory equipment and protective gear to help in the fight against Ebola at a time when “many people were coming out and running away and others were very hesitant to send people”.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2014