Warning as fears grow that Ebola may spread to Europe
LONDON: Fears are growing that the west African Ebola outbreak could spread to Europe, with a leading medical charity warning the epidemic is out of control and the EU allocating extra spending.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said the crisis gripping Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone would only get worse. It could not rule out the disease spreading to other countries.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation has met global health officials about implementing measures to halt the spread of the disease, while pan-African airline ASKY has suspended all flights to and from the capitals of Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The EU allocated an extra 2million (R28.4m) to fight the outbreak, bringing EU funding to 3.9m.
“The level of contamination is extremely worrying. We need to scale up our action before many more lives are lost,” said EU Humanitarian Aid commissioner Kristalina Georgieva.
The bloc has deployed experts to help victims and try to limit contagion.
Georgieva called for a “sustained effort from the international community to help west Africa deal with this menace”.
In Britain, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond chaired a meeting of the government’s crisis management committee to assess the situation.
Prime Minister David Cameron regarded “it as a serious threat”, Hammond told Sky News.
One person in England has been tested for the disease, but was found not to have it.
Bart Janssens, MSF’s director of operations, warned there was no broad vision of how to deal with the outbreak.
“This epidemic is unprecedented, absolutely out of control and the situation can only get worse, because it is spreading, above all in Liberia and Sierra Leone, in some important hot spots,” he said.
“We are extremely worried by the turn of events, particularly in these two countries, where there is a lack of visibility on the epidemic. If the situation does not improve fairly quickly, there is a risk of new countries being affected.”
Liberia closed all schools yesterday and placed “nonessential” government workers on 30 days’ leave in a bid to halt the spread of the virus.All markets in border areas have been ordered to close until further notice.
In Washington, the US Peace Corps said it was withdrawing 340 volunteers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Since March, there have been 1 201 cases of Ebola and 672 deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ebola can claim the lives of victims within days. It causes severe fever and muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhoea and, in some cases, organ failure and unstoppable bleeding.
“We are lacking an overarching view to understand where the chief problems are,” said Janssens. “It’s up to the World Health Organisation and to government to deploy and organise the capacity and effort required to start to control this epidemic.”
ASKY, which serves 20 destinations, said it had halted all flights to and from Liberia and Sierra Leone following the death of a passenger from the virus after they had travelled from Liberia to Nigeria via the Togolese capital Lome.
The 40-year-old man died in Lagos on Friday in Nigeria’s first confirmed death from Ebola.
The virus which crossed borders for the first time on the pan-African airline could lead to new flight restrictions to contain outbreaks, the world aviation agency said.
“Until now (the virus) had not impacted commercial aviation, but now we’re affected,” the agency’s secretary-general, Raymond Benjamin, said. “We will have to act quickly.”
British Airways said it was maintaining its flights to west Africa but would monitor the situation closely.
In Romania, the foreign affairs ministry warned citizens planning to travel to west Africa to avoid affected areas.