Brussels, 18/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - There is a need for epidemiologists, anthropologists and medical teams able to train healthcare personnel in countries hit by Ebola so as to “isolate the disease, not the people”, and as many mobile laboratories as possible. This is now the priority, jointly stressed before the European press on Tuesday 18 November by Christos Stylianides, the EU anti-Ebola Coordinator, and Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis, who are just back from their joint mission to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
The front-row seats for the presentation, the day before, of the first-hand information gathered on the ground by these two men (both medical doctors by profession) from representatives of governments, international organisations, humanitarian workers and NGOs such as Doctors Without Borders, were reserved by Stylianides for the European foreign affairs ministers and the European Parliament's development committee. However, it will still take the Commission “three or four days” to carry out an in-depth assessment of these data, so that it can pinpoint the specific needs of each country and adequately respond to them, said Stylianides.
“The Ebola epidemic is creating a situation of real danger. We must redouble our efforts to stop it from spreading and to wipe it out. We have to re-establish the devastated healthcare systems and economies of the African countries affected, whilst preserving the health of our own citizens. Our commitment must be unswerving and for the long term. None of the countries affected can get out of this on its own. I propose other actions to fight Ebola”, said Stylianides, who called for continued vigilance, even though the spread of the virus has slowed down.
The action plan he proposes consists of: - following up this mission by mobilising the member states and the international community to deploy more health personnel and epidemiologists “on the ground today”, and more mobile laboratories to reach the most isolated communities. Stylianides has already made a request to mobilise European health teams, and a high-level meeting on Ebola will be held in collaboration with all of the commissioners concerned, in particular Neven Mimica, International Cooperation and Development Commissioner; - promoting closer cooperation with the countries affected, but also regional cooperation, which is vital in order to reinforce controls at the point where the borders of the three countries meet; - speeding up work to develop a vaccine; - continuing to raise awareness of Ebola, in the EU and in the countries affected. “It is not fear which should guide our actions”, Stylianides stressed.
Andriukaitis reiterated the need to “move from the defensive to the offensive, to fight the lack of hygiene by adopting 'top-down' treatment approaches in populated areas and 'bottom-up' responses elsewhere”. He went on to add: “in the short term, we need rapid response teams made up of a doctor and four or five nurses or paramedics, but in the medium and long term, we will need far more”. On 1 December, he will report to the EPSCO Council on the rapid solutions which have been found.
The visit of the two commissioners to the affected areas allowed them to observe that the epidemic has evolved differently in each of the three countries, and to note that the responses need to evolve as well. In Sierra Leone, the commissioners visited a treatment centre “run most remarkably by the United Kingdom”, where civilian and military staff are working hand in hand. Without a Marshall Plan, the country's development will be difficult, because of the extent to which the social fabric has broken down. In Liberia, the need is not so much for doctors as for healthcare aides, nurses and hygienists. The number of cases of infection has dropped, but the virus has become more mobile, “which means that the response needs to be adapted”. The commissioners visited a centre run by Doctors Without Borders in Monrovia, but smaller, more mobile centres are required, to be able to react more quickly. In Guinea, the number of cases of infection is lower than in its neighbours, but still on the increase. Stylianides argued in favour of a more targeted approach to convince the world that Ebola is not the result of a conspiracy, but is a virus that needs to be dealt with. “French-speaking epidemiologists are vital to identify regions where treatment centres are required, and we need a specific communication strategy”, he said.
The MEPs from the development committee, chaired by Linda Mc Avan (S&D, UK), thanked Stylianides for his visit on the ground and called for the adoption of an action plan, together with a timetable listing all of the concrete actions to be carried out. Charles Goerens (ALDE, Luxembourg), rapporteur for the Ebola crisis, called for an inventory of human and material resources requirements. (AN)