Brussels, 05/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission announced €140 million of additional funding on Friday 5 September for the countries currently affected by the Ebola virus in West Africa, to help them deal with the rapidly growing crisis, the worst outbreak of this haemorrhagic fever, which threatens to destabilise the whole region.
The governments of the countries affected - Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Nigeria - lack the capacity to deal with it. The announcement of the capacity-building support was made by European Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs during his official visit to Benin (see EUROPE 11148). It comes on top of the €11.9 million in emergency humanitarian aid pledged by the Commission since March, in response to the crisis.
Of this new aid envelope: - €97.5 million will go to direct budget support in Liberia and Sierra Leone, to reinforce government capacity to deliver public services; - €38 million will be used to strengthen healthcare systems, including in the areas of healthcare provision, food security (mainly in the areas under quarantine), water and sanitation; - €5 million help provide mobile laboratories for the detection of the virus and training health workers.
“The ongoing Ebola crisis remains extremely concerning; not just because of its obvious impact on health services but also due to the wider challenges it brings to the region in terms of economic stability, food security, water and sanitation”, stated Piebalgs. “The situation is going from bad to worse”, said Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Kristalina Georgieva. She added: “We need to pool our efforts and provide adequate air transportation and medical equipment to our partners in order to fight this menace”.
Air transport, whether commercial air services, air ambulances or even military flights, is extremely important for maintaining contact between the countries affected and the rest of the world, contact which is crucial if the epidemic is to be tackled effectively. However, fear of spread of the disease has led airlines to reduce or even cancel their regular flights. It is now becoming increasingly difficult to bring in personnel and material. The efforts being made to remedy the situation are being hampered by the closing of borders, suspension of flights and the fact that the air ambulances do not have flying rights.
Limited access to certain regions of the countries affected also complicates registration and isolation of patients. Added to this, there is a lack of medical materials that allow the ill to be isolated and the medical staff to be protected. Ebola has already cost the lives of more than 120 health staff. According to the WHO, so far 1,900 people have died and 3,500 have been infected, 40% in the last three weeks. (AN)