New York - Joanne Liu, President of International Medical Charity – Medecins sans Frontieres – has accused world leaders of failing to come to grips with the Ebola threat in West Africa.
She told UN member states in New York on Tuesday that the world leader’s response has not been favorable, as they have essentially joined a global coalition of inaction.
Her remarks followed World Bank President Jim Yong Kim’s declaration on Monday that many people were dying unnecessarily from a “disastrously inadequate response’’ to the disease.
He added that wealthy nations ought to share their knowledge and resources to help African countries.
Liu said the transmission rates had reached levels never reported in past Ebola outbreaks, and NGOs and the UN could not alone implement the WHO Global Road Map to fight the spreading and unpredictable outbreak.
She said any military assets and personnel sent to the region should not be used for quarantine, containment, or crowd control measures because forced quarantines have created fear and unrest, rather than stem the spread of the virus.
“ The international response has so far relied on overstretched health ministries and non-governmental organisations to tackle the exceptionally large outbreak of the disease’’, she said.
Liu said field hospitals with isolation wards must be scaled up, trained personnel sent out, mobile laboratories deployed to improve diagnostics, and air bridges established to move people and material to and within West Africa.
Jorge Castilla-Echenique, Health Adviser at the European Commission’s humanitarian arm (ECHO), said Ebola was now a question of international security.
He said as a result of this, ECHO was pushing for military medical intervention, but he warned of the high costs involved.
“The European Commission wants U.S. Army and Seal protection teams to come here and produce an air bridge to keep the health workers and aid flowing.
“Am referring to the U.S. mobile army surgical hospitals that can serve as fully functional health facilities’’, he said.
He said the problem with the military was that a treatment centre of 50 beds may cost seven million euros over one year.
Castilla-Echenique said there was urgency in the response because “the clock is ticking and Ebola is winning.
“The time for meetings and planning is over, it is now time to act, because every day of inaction means more deaths and the slow collapse of societies’’, he said.
She told UN member states in New York on Tuesday that the world leader’s response has not been favorable, as they have essentially joined a global coalition of inaction.
Her remarks followed World Bank President Jim Yong Kim’s declaration on Monday that many people were dying unnecessarily from a “disastrously inadequate response’’ to the disease.
He added that wealthy nations ought to share their knowledge and resources to help African countries.
Liu said the transmission rates had reached levels never reported in past Ebola outbreaks, and NGOs and the UN could not alone implement the WHO Global Road Map to fight the spreading and unpredictable outbreak.
She said any military assets and personnel sent to the region should not be used for quarantine, containment, or crowd control measures because forced quarantines have created fear and unrest, rather than stem the spread of the virus.
“ The international response has so far relied on overstretched health ministries and non-governmental organisations to tackle the exceptionally large outbreak of the disease’’, she said.
Liu said field hospitals with isolation wards must be scaled up, trained personnel sent out, mobile laboratories deployed to improve diagnostics, and air bridges established to move people and material to and within West Africa.
Jorge Castilla-Echenique, Health Adviser at the European Commission’s humanitarian arm (ECHO), said Ebola was now a question of international security.
He said as a result of this, ECHO was pushing for military medical intervention, but he warned of the high costs involved.
“The European Commission wants U.S. Army and Seal protection teams to come here and produce an air bridge to keep the health workers and aid flowing.
“Am referring to the U.S. mobile army surgical hospitals that can serve as fully functional health facilities’’, he said.
He said the problem with the military was that a treatment centre of 50 beds may cost seven million euros over one year.
Castilla-Echenique said there was urgency in the response because “the clock is ticking and Ebola is winning.
“The time for meetings and planning is over, it is now time to act, because every day of inaction means more deaths and the slow collapse of societies’’, he said.
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