Ebola to spread globally sans exit screening

European Union says ‘ increased’ effort needed to tackle Ebola The foreign ministers agreed the European Commiss- ion should ‘ guarantee appropriate care for international health responders’, including the option of medical evacuation

Three Ebola- infected travellers from the worst affected West African countries — Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea — are predicted to depart on an international flight every month, if no exit screening were to take place, according to new modelling research published in the Lancet.

Dr Kamran Khan at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, Canada, and colleagues analysed 2014 worldwide flight schedules and historic flight itiner- aries of passengers from 2013 to predict expected population movements out of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. They also used WHO Ebola virus surveillance data to model the expected number of exported Ebola virus infections and to determine how useful air travel restrictions and airport departure and arrival screening might be in controlling the spread of the deadly virus.

Meanwhile, European Union foreign ministers agreed on Monday to step up efforts to contain Ebola to prevent it becoming a global threat, including ensuring proper care for international health workers. “A united, coordinated and increased effort is needed in order to contain the outbreak,” the 28 ministers said in a statement, adding that affected and neighbouring countries must be given “the necessary and appropriate assistance”.

Their conclusions will be taken up Thursday and Friday at an EU leaders summit in Brussels where the fight against Ebola will once again dominate proceedings. The foreign ministers agreed the European Commission should “guarantee appropriate care for international health responders,” including the option of medical evacuation to ensure frontline staff get the best care for a disease which has neither vaccine nor cure. The ministers also said there was a need to set up a pool of vol- unteer health experts from EU states “for quick and targeted deployment in health crises”. Additionally, the EU should target aid to affected countries so as to boost their own defences against the disease, the statement said. Also, the World Health Organisation on Monday declared Nigeria officially Ebolafree, after 42 days — or two incubation periods — without any new confirmed cases of the deadly virus. “The virus is gone for now. The outbreak in Nigeria has been defeated,” WHO country representative Rui Gama Vaz said in Abuja.