From WND.com.

The devastating Ebola virus should not be characterized as an “African disease,” the director-general of the World Health Organization told reporters today.

Dr. Margaret Chan, speaking in a teleconference hosted by the U.N. Foundation in Washington, D.C., explained that any stigmatization of the disease suggesting a racial classification would be detrimental to United Nations effort to control the outbreak.

Chan asserted commercial airline travel to the affected West African countries was essential to the U.N. relief effort to get physicians and medical supplies to the region to combat the outbreak. She insisted airline travel would be safe as long as rigorous passenger screening removed anyone showing Ebola symptoms.

Chan did not mention, however, the problem arising from Ebola’s 21-day incubation, which would allow some infected people who don’t show symptoms yet to travel.

Dr. David Nabarro, the senior U.N. system coordinator for the Ebola outbreak, said a true understanding of the disease in the affected nations was essential to controlling it. He emphasized the importance of stopping African traditional cultural practices of touching and washing the corpse before burial. The U.N. has identified the practice as major transmitter of the disease in West Africa.

The White House posted a video Tuesday in which President Obama urged West Africans caring for Ebola patients or burying victims to wear gloves and masks. He also discouraged the cultural practices of touching and washing the corpse before burial.

“You can respect your traditions and honor your loved ones without risking the lives of the living,” Obama said. “Stopping this disease won’t be easy but we know how to do it.”

Read more at WND.com.