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The Regional Director of World Health Organization (WHO) in charge of Africa, Dr. Louis Gomes Sambo, has attributed the outbreak and fast spreading of the Ebola Virus to some Africa cultural practices and traditional beliefs that are contrary to recommended public health preventives measures. He further added that the extensive movement of people within and across borders has also facilitated the rapid spread of the infection across and within countries. The rapid spread of the virus in the West Africa sub-region has led to an emergency ministerial meeting on Ebola Virus Disease in Accra. The meeting was in collaboration Ghana Health Service and WHO to mount early Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) strategy which aims at to improve the ability of all levels of the health system to detect, confirm and respond to disease and other public health events in levels of death, illness and disability in Africa. He said Ebola outbreak in recent times is the highest recorded in history since 1976 in terms reported number of case, deaths and geographic spread. �For the first time the Ebola virus is circulating in both urban and rural communities,� he said, adding �If care is not taken, the current trend of Ebola and potential risk of cross-border and international spread would constitute a major public health concern.� He noted that since the virus has the potential of spreading outside the affected countries and beyond the region, there was a need for urgent and relevant containing measures to be put in place. On July 1st, a cumulative total of 750 cases and 455 deaths were reported in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. The WHO Regional Director called for sound communication between governments, partners and communities in order to generate reliable evidence for implementation of effective and relevant actions. The Health Minister, Sherry Ayittey addressing the opening ceremony said the disease prevalence in West Africa was a challenge to WHO and countries in the sub-region. She said even though there are clear evidence that countries in the sub-region were winning the fight against infectious diseases in general, those caused by virus continue to remain a formidable threat and Ebola was no exception. Hon. Ayittey, therefore, charged the participants to dive deep and bring out solutions to prevent the Ebola epidemic from spreading. �Considering the composition of participants present, this meeting could be described as very timely and we are all expectant it would yield the desired results,� she noted. The meeting is to provide the opportunity to develop a more coordinated response strategy and stronger national leadership and international partnership.