Brussels, 29/08/2014 (Agence Europe) - The alarming spread of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa (Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria), which has left more than 1,500 people dead, requires a coordinated international response the WHO has warned, and the European Union is already working on a coordinated European response, senior European officials announced on Thursday 29 August. Speaking before the press the day after a meeting of the competent ministers of ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), they took stock of the EU's response to this unprecedented epidemic, which the WHO has categorised as level III in terms of health emergencies and which is of concern to the EU (see EUROPE 11135).
The subject will be discussed at the highest level this Saturday 30 August, at the extraordinary European Council, European sources have confirmed, the gravity of the problem having prompted Herman Van Rompuy to add this point to the agenda of the session. One diplomat expressed France's intention to call for more European funding to be made available and an extraordinary meeting of health ministers to be convened.
“This epidemic is a threat to the whole international community. It is the disease which has to be isolated, not the countries affected. The worst-hit countries are those which need the most external aid. Liberia and Sierra Leone are among the poorest countries in the world. They do not have the capacity to tackle this”, one senior official stressed, referring to resources in terms both of health care personnel and protective equipment. “The local healthcare services have done their jobs and the healthcare staff have, in some cases, succumbed to the disease, but they are beyond capacity. Isolating these countries is not the answer, we have to help them”, he added. Although the United Nations is leading the effort, “the EU is engaged to tackle this crisis from the outside”, he said, referring to four areas for intervention to ensure effective action.
These are: 1) protecting EU citizens in West Africa and in Europe; 2) supporting medical efforts in the countries concerned; 3) supporting the governments of these countries in their concerns as to the impact on the economy, trade and food supply; 4) helping the neighbouring countries to protect themselves from Ebola.
“The cost to these governments is enormous and DG Devco is looking into what it can do. We want to help all of the countries of the region to prepare and to coordinate their efforts. This will call for ECOWAS and the African Union to take a leading role”, the same source stressed.
As of 26 August, the death toll of the epidemic stood at 1,552, with a further 3,069 people infected. At the time of going to press, the European Commission has mobilised €11.9 million in humanitarian aid through Médecins Sans frontières, the WHO, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. It is currently studying the proposals of other partners to increase the capacity for treating the sick and activities to diagnose the disease.
Since April, the EU's Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which is based in Sweden, has been closely following developments in the situation and continues to consider that the risk in Europe is extremely low. “It is highly unlikely that Ebola will reach the EU”, a high-ranking representative reiterated on Friday. So far, Ebola has left one person dead in the United Kingdom and two people suffering from the disease, one in Spain and the other in Germany. A fourth person has just been placed in quarantine in Belgium. The experts of the member states meeting every week within the Health Security Committee to report back on experiences, purely on a preventative basis, as certain member states have no capacity. (AN)