Prominent public health experts urge western governments to do more
 |
| On Friday, the death toll from the Ebola virus passed the 3,000 mark, six months after the outbreak began. Photograph: Tommy Trenchard/The New York Times |
Former Irish European commissioner David Byrne has called on Ireland and other EU states to do more to fight the
outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in west Africa.
Mr Byrne, who held the health portfolio in the European Commission from
1999 to 2004, is one of 44 prominent public health experts who signed a
letter in The Lancet medical journal that urged Western
governments to “mobilise all possible resources” to assist west Africa
in controlling the epidemic. On Friday, the death toll from the disease
passed the 3,000 mark, six months after the outbreak began.
The Irish Government
could help by facilitating medical staff to take career breaks so they
can volunteer to work fighting the disease, and by providing medical
supplies to control the spread of infection, Mr Byrne told The Irish Times yesterday.
The EU Commission has donated more than €180 million to help fight the
epidemic, he said. “It’s for the governments of the member states now to
up their game. The EU doesn’t have the ability to send health personnel
into west Africa in the numbers needed, but the health communities in
each country can.”
Ireland is a long-standing supporter of the WHO and enjoys a good
reputation internationally for its aid work, he pointed out. It is also a
signatory of an international agreement that requires countries to be
supportive when the WHO declares an outbreak a “public health emergency
of international concern,” as it has done in the case of the current
Ebola outbreak.
“We’re now dealing with an outbreak of a serious disease in developing
countries that don’t have the resources to fight it. Meanwhile, the
developed world hasn’t given enough attention to the problem, probably
because it doesn’t think the disease will spread further,” said Byrne.
Irish Aid has made donations totalling about €460,000 in response to the Ebola outbreak.
"Out of control’
The Lancet letter said the Ebola epidemic has “spiralled completely out of control” after months of “inaction and neglect” from the international community.
“Today, the virus is a threat not only to the countries where the
outbreak has overwhelmed the capacity of national health systems, but
also to the entire world.
“The Ebola epidemic represents a public health imperative; unchecked, it might very well become a geopolitical one.”
source:irishtimes.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment