The United Nations Security Council, in its first emergency meeting on a public health crisis Thursday, Sept 18, declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa a threat to peace and security, as Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced that the UN will deploy a new emergency health mission to combat one of most horrific diseases on the planet that has shattered the lives of millions.

“This international mission, to be known as the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, or UNMEER, will have five priorities: stopping the outbreak, treating the infected, ensuring essential services, preserving stability and preventing further outbreaks,” Ban told the Security Council.

The Secretary-General said the mission’s effectiveness will depend crucially on support from the international community.

“Our best estimate is that we need a 20-fold increase in assistance,” he said. The United Nations this week outlined a set of critical needs totaling almost $1 billion over the next six months.

Ban spoke before the Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution, sponsored by 131 countries – reportedly more than any other sponsors of a resolution to date in the chamber – “determining that the unprecedented extent of the Ebola outbreak in Africa constitute a threat to international peace and security.”

Expressing concern about the detrimental effect of the isolation of Ebola-hit Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone as a result of trade and travel restrictions imposed on the affected countries, the Council called on member states, including of the region, to such restrictions imposed as a result of the outbreak, and to facilitate the delivery of assistance, including qualified, specialized and trained personnel and supplies to the affected countries.

Briefing the Council members, Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said: “None of us experienced in containing outbreaks has ever seen, in our lifetimes, an emergency on this scale, with this degree of suffering and with this magnitude of cascading consequences.”

She said more than 5,500 people have been infected by Ebola and more than 2,500 killed by it in West Africa.