(VOVworld) - The UN Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) approved by consensus Tuesday a draft resolution to provide nearly 50 million USD for United Nations operations to control the Ebola outbreak. The newly established United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) is already operating in West Africa with more than 50 staff members. UN General Assembly President Sam Kutesa said the resolution demonstrates the organization’s ability to deliver on pressing global issues and the fact that the Ebola outbreak carries serious economic, social and security consequences, particularly in West Africa.

Volunteers prepare to remove the bodies of people who were suspected of contracting Ebola and died in the community in the village of Pendebu, north of Kenema. (Photo: Reuters)

UNMEER teams have already been deployed to the Mission’s headquarters in Accra and Ghana, and to offices in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. In addition to UNMEER funding, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it has been able to raise 257 million of the 1 billion USD needed to deal with the outbreak.

To date, it is reported that 6,500 people have been infected with Ebola virus, which has killed 3,300 people since March.