ebola

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that Ebola could infect 20,000 people within nine months. Although the virus was first transmitted to humans in the 1970s, this is the worst outbreak of Ebola so far. An estimated 3,000 people have been infected and more than 1,500 have died in four West African countries: Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. Those infected have a less than 50% survival rate.

Should Europeans be worried that the outbreak could spread to the EU? Health officials believe there is almost no risk of an outbreak in Europe, and warn that attempts to isolate the affected countries by halting flights are now hampering their efforts to get equipment and personnel into areas where they are needed.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), an independent agency of the European Union whose job is to help protect Europe against infectious diseases, estimates that the risk of the Ebola outbreak spreading to the EU is “very low”. Ebola, which is spread through contact with blood, vomit and other bodily fluids, is more serious in developing countries with poor public sanitation and high poverty rates, where health systems are now collapsing under the strain.

The WHO is warning that the global response has so far been insufficient. There is a desperate need for more medical staff, hospital beds and other resources, at an estimated cost of almost half a billion dollars over the next 6-9 months.

So far, the EU has committed almost €12 million ($15 million) to support affected countries, but if the outbreak is not contained at this stage then tens of thousands could be at risk and the disease could spread to other parts of Africa.

Should Europe be contributing more to help fight the Ebola outbreak in West Africa? Let us know your thoughts and comments in the form below, and we’ll take them to policy-makers and experts for their reactions.

IMAGE CREDITS: CC / Flickr – DG ECHO


37 comments Post a commentcomment

What do YOU think?

  1. avatar
    crayven

    The EU should close the borders to all African people coming from the area or the neighboring countries + promote an information campaign.
    Nothing too alarming, but enough to prevent a pandemic if a case arises.

    • avatar
      James McManama

      Did you read the article? There is practically no risk of an outbreak in Europe. Closing the borders will only make the problem WORSE!

      The capital of Liberia has a population of over one million people… but only 6 ambulances! The only Ebola treatment center has just 120 beds, so people sleep (and die) on the floor. The public health system is imploding.

      Europe shouldn’t enact hysterical measures that make the problem worse.

    • avatar
      crayven

      I rather we not take chances.

    • avatar
      Richard Osborne

      James, there is an enormous risk to Europe. Read between the lines. You are most likely to catch it from contact with vomit etc yes? How many Africans jump in a truck and get smuggled to Europe everyweek? Hundreds. If 1 infected person in 1 truck of say 10 people arrives, all will be infected, then they disappear into their own communities and the desease spreads.

  2. avatar
    Karel Van Isacker

    Of course we should. We treat Africa as our chemical waste dump, so it is our damn human obligation to help them.

    • avatar
      catherine benning

      @ James McManama:

      ‘There is practically no risk of an outbreak in Europe.’ Oh, really.

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20341423

      I’m sure you read the news on the male nurse from the UK who went to assist the people in Africa, but because of his similar belief to your, didn’t follow good practice, and looked after the baby of one of his Eboli patients, when he (the nurse) wasn’t working on the ward. He did this as if this child did not carry this disease because he wasn’t showing any symptoms. Hence he came down with the disease.

      Th British government, for whatever reason, decided to fly this man back to the UK and place him in a filthy central London hospital for treatment. They di this with the full knowledge that containment in such a circumstance would be very risky indeed.

      The staff on duty at that hospital are not simply doctors who decide on his treatment. They are nurses, cleaners, wardens and many other individuals who go home after what, a shower, maybe, on the tube, on the buses, stop off at fst food chain or a pub. And you believe this is unlikely to affect Europe.

      Then there is the idea that we in Europe can cure this illness, so, anyone with the ability who gets a fever or flu symptoms in these parts of Africa decide to take a plan to our homeland as they will be cured. Or, worse, try to illegally enter one of our ports along with 50 or more fellow travelers, and you don’t believe this will have anything to do with us.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l-gPfL2Bgw

      And one last little snippet, do you believe our respective governments will tell us openly if it arrives on our shores? Please, they will simply isolate themselves and their families and let it slip out through the natural word of mouth of those caring or knowing about the outbreak.

      And as one previous poster suggested how do we know who was at the back of this infection, or, the reason for it. Read the links. Could it be that UN Agenda 21 is already well under way?

      http://news.sky.com/story/1325824/ebola-nurse-may-have-caught-virus-from-child

      This nurse was totally irresponsible toward his fellow citizens. His decision to go to Africa to treat patients was his own and he did it without informing the State of his intention. He should have remained in the country he contracted the illness and if the UK health department felt it wanted to give assistance it should have been followed up in situ. Far less expensive and far less dangerous to the innocent population of our state. How the UK government came to be involved in returning him to the UK at a cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds on RAF flights and special equipment is an enigma. As, if you are a usual Brit who flies to any area on the globe which is contagious and even if you have private medical insurance, the government assistance is totally non existent. They will not move a muscle. Why this guy, why take the risk to us all. And why put him in a central London hospital known for its unhygienic habitation. What they should have done is fly him to the Houses of Parliament and treated him there. After all they are in recess.

    • avatar
      James McManama

      Catherine,

      A health worker infected with Ebola while working in West Africa and then flown to Europe for treatment does not constitute a European Ebola epidemic.

      And you can’t seriously be comparing the NHS with the healthcare system of Liberia? As I said above, there are only 120 beds in the only Ebola treatment center in the capital of Liberia, a city with a population of one million. There are not enough doctors. There are not enough ambulances. Not enough laboratories or beds or medical supplies.

  3. avatar
    Venko Drumchiyski

    EU don`t make enough to find a solition for Ebola problems in Africa. I know EU have a many problems at this moment, but whole world is one big family so we should be help each other. “Hot spot” in the world ( Africa, Ukraine, Afganistan…) are our problems, they don`t just a local problems on this regions – they are world problems!

    • avatar
      catherine benning

      @ James McManama:

      Just exactly what are you getting at? You are certainly sure of yourself aren’t you, even when it is advised differently by those who work with this disease. You of course know more than they. But you are certainly not concerned for the European people who may be put at risk by this gross irresponsibility, are you? I always find this attitude so oddly disturbing with do gooders. They never seem to worry about the sick, elderly, starving, etc., in their country of origin or of the European, no this concern applies only to those from outside our borders. Africa is an enormous country with more than ample resources, yet, it is never considered that the population of those places are able to ‘look after themselves’ and that because of it, should they be filled with disease, they must be allowed to infest the rest of the world with it. Do tell us about it and why that is? Let’s just take AIDS for example. We are ready to allow any refugees or asylum seekers with this nasty infectious bug through our ports in their droves, as their human rights demand it. Hence the spread of that disease into the European people at a rate that would knock your head off. However, the human rights of their hosts are not considered and people like you make light of it. Why is that? Why is it you find the lives of one set of people are more entitled to ‘human compassion’ than others? Especially when the others are paying through the nose for their care with their taxes. Can you explain that with good solid logic? Do you want to really debate your stance, or, because of your superior intellect, I assume, we supposed to sit down and accept your rattling of this nonsense because you are one of those with a higher sense of goodness? Get off that high horse, you are simply our equal. Not more and not less.

      And NHS care is on its last legs because of idiots who think we, the British tax payer, can keep the down and outs of the world going on our largesse,.No matter how many of them there may be. We give billions in aid to these places who never ever seem to reduce their drastic stance or need by getting off their large round rumps and make that money work for them. There is no difference in the races, each is as capable and brilliant as the next, so it isn’t a case of inability is it? Where is that money going, and to what purpose are we slogging our guts out for it? Want to enlighten me? As I dwell on it quite a bit lately.

      This man was brought into the UK by the State, our defenders, after he chose to go and work amongst those he had concern for. He had no worries about bringing the illness back to the UK, rather than remaining with his victims in the place of his right to satisfied fulfillment and to whom he went to assist.

      This man deliberately exposed himself to infection of a deadly contagious virus. He went there knowing the risks he was taking. He has a duty to accept responsibility for his actions. This virus is very possibly airborne, so don’t play the old game of, we must keep a lid on it as the medics will stand by to stop the panic. That doesn’t wash with me, my family are in the business of surgeon. I know what goes on and how this lie is manipulated.

      This man also knew the standard of health care in the area he decided to offer his life to. He should have kept his treatment there. Some of the patients there do survive with the treatment they receive, otherwise, why did he go in the first place? What reason could he have had? To help them toward a definite death? And the population of London, is? How many does that put at risk? Take a guess. And now it has spread to other countries all over the place, Brazil, Morocco, just off the Spanish border and Argentina.

      You want to put your family and yourself at risk, then hop on a plane and take your chances, but don’t expect us to be prepared to put up with this bull because you think you are high minded. You are not, you are a twerp. And one last mind opener for you, there are not enough ambulances, not enough doctors, not enough laboratory staff, beds or medical supplies in the UK, for those already here and especially in London, because we have stretched ourselves out of all recognition of what our civilization was with the massive influx of need from outside of Europe. We now suffer the results of that more than any others across Europe.

      My fellow countrymen did not sign up for this when they were told their tax money and insurance payments, paid out of their slender salaries, would be used to heal the world of useless eaters, as they were referred to by Henry Kissinger. We should all immediately stop paying taxes to keep these lunatic governments in business. Their first duty is to their voters not to the world of spongers as they pillage our stores and rampage our back yards. We did not vote for it.

      And this Ebola follower, should have lived his ‘hero’ life doing his own people a favour by staying where he chose to go. He was willing to die for his need to play the good samaritan, he had no right whatsoever to make that choice a possibility for the rest of us. He has no right to a hospital bed so desperately needed by his countryman, after he so carelessly decided they didn’t count in his thinking. We owe him just as much as he owed us. Nothing.

    • avatar
      crayven

      No we don’t.
      We should stay the hell out of Africa and see to Ukraine – THAT is the place that concerns us.

      Not some remote land far away.

    • avatar
      John S.

      With easy travel, a virus can be transmitted anywhere in the world within hours. Therefore countries like France, Germany etc need to match Britain’s efforts to eradicate Ebola. (Was the writer of the long rant drunk when she wrote non-sense?)

  4. avatar
    Yulia Amariei

    Fools! They all agreed to create a problem and now they’re ask8ng if they do enough?! How stupid do you think we are? This methode is just to check how far our knowleadge is, they’ve always been thereabout. We give the answers, “they” make the next move. So move on EU! Succes with that! ?

  5. avatar
    Marcel

    The 19th century colonial mindset is still alive, I see.

    “We must intervene” (because only the ‘white man’ can show the way)
    “We must help” (implying the ‘savage’ can’t do it himself)
    “We have a moral obligation” (to bring ‘civilization’)

    I say we stay out and seal off the borders. Spain should cede Ceuta and Melilla to Morocco immediately.

  6. avatar
    catherine benning

    And here we see how our politicians and their ‘open door’ policies are working against our citizens. Along with their social worker flunkies who will do anything for a shilling. But, we have to ask, is this a deliberate move in order to comply with the ‘depopulation’ requirements of the ‘UN Agenda 21’ that Europe and the UK signed up to under the killing machines called Bush and Blair? Which was carried out in virtual silence across the whole of Europe. How many of you know about this contract to depopulate the planet? I wonder where their safe havens are and how they will keep themselves and families safe?

    http://online.wsj.com/articles/swedish-man-hospitalized-with-suspected-case-of-ebola-1409519411

    And

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/11039637/Suspected-Ebola-patient-from-Nigeria-tested-in-Spain-hospital.html

    This is being carried in the animals of Africa, including monkeys and pigs, so we are being told by the Mayo Clinic, Whom they cannot gag.

    http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/ebola-virus/basics/causes/con-20031241

    Which means food being shipped into Europe from outside our boarders are possible carriers here. So much for our dumb politicians and their extraordinary vision of Europe and the open world they are pushing down our throats, literally. .

    • avatar
      EU reform- proactive

      This time, I can nod in agreement with a sight of relief- of the expressed common sense- which most politician have lost due to PC dementia, pleasing the US 1% & addressing the gone over the top “do gooders”.

      The 1992 “Sustainable Development Document” (UN Agenda 21- 40 Chapters of reading!) is however non binding, evolving & a futuristic plan! Like an early plan to fly a human to the next solar system. Relax and have some tea!

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agenda_21

  7. avatar
    Katharisete

    Im not from europe, and in my side and point of view EU problems are not as big as the rest of the word, i mean, the top countries who live better are mostly european.I dont say that you should not resolve your problems, but Africa is needing you right now. When you need help other countires will help you as you did. Thats charity and you cant just stay inside your safety place and do nothing about the rest; you should read “The mask of the red death” from Edgard Allan Poe and see the similarities that are happening right now with the story. If we just think about our own problems, nobody will think about us when we need help.
    Thank you

  8. avatar
    Ephraim Schulze

    It’s time for developing countries to step in too ITS A GLOBAL RESPOSABLITY for ourselves and PROGENITORS ??????

  9. avatar
    Daniela

    There are, as amways, contradictory information. Is Ebola virus airborne? Maybe we just don’t know for sure… But anyway, as we live today, I don’t think it’s possible to isolate Europe or US. It’s already here. Now let’s see how it spreads… Scientists should be working on a vaccine, cure or efective treatment for this virus a long time ago… But the problem was so far away… It wasn’t our problem. And there was no economic interest on that. Now I guess it is our problem or it will be.

  10. avatar
    Jaume Roqueta

    please.. EU should ask for the dimmission of the whole spanish government… this is the best thing you can do to stop ebola en spain…

  11. avatar
    Jaume Roqueta

    and pleas send your specialist from UK and germany to here… 3 or 4 years ago our gobernment closed the special team of tropical disassies and epidemic emergencies.. they planed to privatize it but they stop at the first step, closing the public service of preventing epidemias… so please, send the german one or UK one to spain… kick the ass of Ana Mato and Mariano Rajoy…

  12. avatar
    Nando Aidos

    What are the experts saying?
    Not the politicians, not the stupid media, but the “public health experts”.
    What are they saying?
    That would be very valuable for all of us to listen to!

  13. avatar
    eusebio manuel vestias pecurto

    Brussels reforms of emigration and political power of the elite of the African Continent will have to change their policies makes no sense that poor communities of Africa live and work and survive and are chanlleged to radical groups where there is terrorism to poverty and disease is why the modern European society defends the rights freedoms of injustice in this unhappy planet

  14. avatar
    mrs c alty

    why is it always the uk that leads in humanitarian work . what about the rest of europe.

    • avatar
      Yvetta

      The rest of Europe does not want to get involved in Africa and cannot really afford it either. Apart from this, it does not have such a large part of its population travelling to and from Africa, and, therefore is not in danger being affected as much as the UK.

  15. avatar
    Yvetta

    I don’t understand why the EU has to do anything about an epidemic raging somewhere else, other than keep it out if its own doors. People need to stop eating bats so it does not happen again. It is so simple.

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