Stakeholders mobilise against Ebola outbreak

The World Health Organisation, WHO, continues to monitor the evolution of the Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, outbreak in West Africa, which has so far claimed 539 lives in Liberia, Guinea Conakry and Sierra Leone, as at July 8, 2014.

To better respond to the epidemic, 11 West African Health Ministers recently adopted a common strategy to fight the deadly outbreak.

At an emergency meeting in Ghana, they promised better collaboration to tackle the disease's deadliest outbreak to date. In collaboration with WHO, a sub-regional outbreak response coordination centre is being established in Conakry, Guinea.

It will act as a control and coordination platform to consolidate and harmonise technical support to countries and assist in resource mobilisation.

According to the WHO, "The centre will be responsible for ensuring the effective use and deployment of critical resources.

The organisation and coordination of key support functions and field operations will now move closer to outbreak areas or hot spots," the WHO assured. Meanwhile, experts say educating people rather than closing borders is the most effective way to contain the outbreak.

Cultural practices and traditional beliefs in some areas have hampered public health measures, contributing to the spread of the disease, they add. In some cases, mobs have attacked health workers, forcing emergency treatment centres to close.

Most of the deaths have been in the southern Guekedou region of Guinea where the outbreak was first reported last February.

Health officials say the region's porous borders have allowed infected people to 'export' the disease. Ebola spreads through contact with infected people's bodily fluids, but there is no vaccine or cure. It kills up to 90 per cent of infected people.