Fears that the west African Ebola outbreak could spread to
other continents grew on Wednesday with European and Asian countries on alert
and a leading medical charity warning the epidemic was out of control.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said the crisis gripping
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone would only get worse and warned there was no
overarching strategy to handle the world’s worst outbreak of the disease.
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| EBOLA VIRUS |
US Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse was temporarily
withdrawing its non-essential staff from Liberia, it said, citing regional
“instability and ongoing security issues”.
Hong Kong announced quarantine measures for suspected cases,
although one woman arriving from Africa with possible symptoms tested negative,
while the EU said it was ready to deal with the threat.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has
held talks with global health officials on potential measures to halt the
spread of the disease.
In Britain, where one person has tested negative for the
disease, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said it was regarded as “a very
serious threat”.
An emergency meeting had decided that the best approach was
to provide “additional resources to deal with the disease at source” in West
Africa, he added.
Ebola can kill victims within days, causing severe fever and
muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhoea and, in some cases, organ failure and
unstoppable bleeding.
Since March, there have been 1,201 cases of Ebola and 672
deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health
Organization (WHO).
The US Peace Corps announced Wednesday it was pulling
hundreds of volunteers from the three countries.
There are currently 102 Peace Corps volunteers in Guinea
working on agriculture, education and health, 108 in Liberia and 130 in Sierra
Leone.
The European Union is equipped and ready to treat victims
should the deadly virus be found in its 28 member states, an EU source said in
Brussels.
“We cannot rule out the possibility that an infected person
arrives in Europe but the EU has the means to track and contain any outbreak
rapidly,” the source said.
The isolation and negative testing of a suspected case in
Valencia in Spain showed that the “system worked”, added the source.
“The level of contamination on the ground is extremely
worrying and we need to scale up our action before many more lives are lost,”
said EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva.
In Hong Kong, a densely populated city previously scarred by
disease outbreaks such as the 2003 SARS epidemic, health officials confirmed
they would quarantine as a precautionary measure any visitors from Guinea,
Sierra Leone and Liberia who showed fever symptoms.
One woman arriving in the southern Chinese city from Africa,
who showed symptoms including fever and vomiting, has tested negative for
Ebola.
Australia said Thursday it was well prepared in the unlikely
event that the Ebola virus reached its shores. Australia has already warned
against travel to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
On Tuesday a meeting of the Communicable Diseases Network of
Australia was convened, including key infectious diseases doctors and state and
federal health authorities, to discuss ways to respond if Ebola was detected.
“While the possibility of Ebola coming to Australia is very
low, we are closely monitoring the overseas outbreak and Australia’s domestic
response,” chief medical officer Chris Baggoley said.
All border protection agencies were on alert for possible
Ebola symptoms in people arriving by air or sea, Baggoley confirmed.
Meanwhile, Thai health authorities said they had ordered all
hospitals to monitor patients for any symptoms, particularly nationals or
foreign tourists who had been in the outbreak area.
Bart Janssens, MSF’s director of operations, warned that
governments and global bodies had no “overarching view” of how to tackle the
outbreak.
“This epidemic is unprecedented, absolutely out of control
and the situation can only get worse, because it is still spreading, above all
in Liberia and Sierra Leone, in some very important hotspots,” he said.
“If the situation does not improve fairly quickly, there is
a real risk of new countries being affected,” he told La Libre Belgique
newspaper.
A British doctor volunteering in Sierra Leone treating Ebola
patients told Metro newspaper that medical staff were swamped.
“The main challenge here, though, is that the health
authorities just don’t have the infrastructure to cope. They’re overwhelmed,”
Benjamin Black said.
A top doctor in charge of a Sierra Leone treatment centre
died of the virus earlier this week.
In Canada, local media reported that a Canadian doctor had
put himself in quarantine as a precaution after spending weeks in west Africa
treating patients with the virus alongside an American doctor, who is now
infected.
A spokesman for the French foreign ministry said they were
offering technical support and expertise on the ground in west Africa.
And Liberia announced it was shutting all schools and
placing “non-essential” government workers on 30 days’ leave.
Togo-based pan-African airline ASKY, which serves 20
destinations, on Tuesday halted all flights to and from Liberia and Sierra
Leone following the death of a passenger from the virus.
The 40-year-old man, who travelled from Liberia, died in
Lagos on Friday in Nigeria’s first confirmed death from Ebola.
The virus crossing borders for the first time by plane could
lead to new flight restrictions aimed at containing outbreaks, the world
aviation agency said.
“Until now (the virus) had not impacted commercial aviation,
but now we’re affected,” ICAO secretary general Raymond Benjamin said.
“We will have to act quickly.” (AFP)
