EAC flashes red flag over Ebola

‘The threat it poses to the region is real’
The East African Community this week issued an alert over Ebola viral disease (EVD) in West Africa as the death toll from the viral disease reached over 2,600.

A high level ministerial meeting in Nairobi, Kenya  resolved that the region must maintain "a high level emergency preparedness and response" to ensure it was spared from the killer disease. "Countries should ensure their Ebola emergency and preparedness response plans meet the minimal WHO (World Health Organization) standards", the
Secretariat said in a communique.

The partner states were further urged to enhance cross border collaboration and information-sharing while the international community was requested to provide technical and logistical support to the affected countries. The Arusha-based Secretariat was requested to coordinate the implementation of the Regional Plan of Action on EVD using the region's rich expertise in animal disease surveillance

The ministerial meeting noted that the region was still at risk for the killer disease which has already knocked door in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). DRC, Ethiopia and South Sudan were called upon to join the East African Integrated Disease Surveillance Network (EAIDSNet) in order to jointly monitor and detect the spread of Ebola which continue to claim lives in West Africa.

The meeting in the Kenyan capital was organized by EAC in collaboration with Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad), WHO, African Union (AU) and the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO). Also involved was the EAC Civil Aviation Safety and Security Oversight Agency (Cassoa) which convened the first emergency meeting on the crisis at its headquarters in Entebbe, Uganda last month.

The aviation watchdog body suggested mechanisms which could spare the region from the viral disease through tightening surveillance on air transport and checking in coming visitors from West Africa. Cassoa executive director Barry A. Kashambo, who was in Arusha for a series of EAC meetings, told this newspaper that although no outbreak has been
reported in EA, Ebola posed a threat to the region.

"Ebola outbreak started in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia later spreading  to Nigeria and Senegal. Much recently we have heard cases in DRC. The threat it poses to the EA region is real", he warned. He added; "The rapid increase in the number of cases and deaths as well as the impact of the disease outbreak on socio-economic development of our region and Africa is a matter of concern".

He said the EAC countries and others in Africa faced a number of challenges in preparing to the EVD outbreak, specifically in the areas of coordination, communications, cross border collaboration and supplies and logistics. Other challenges include financing, case management, infection prevention and control, surveillance and contact tracing, diagnostics and community sensitization and participation.

EAC bloc is seen as one of the high risk areas for the spread of the disease because of easy air connectivity with West Africa and other regions of the world through tourism, especially through the Nairobi air transport hub. The meeting urged national civil aviation and airports authorities as well as airlines operating in the region to strictly adhere to and enforce all the relevant regulations and guidelines issued on the disease by WHO, International Air Transportation Association (IATA) and other bodies.

Last month, there were reports that fears of Ebola had led to the drop of bookings at the tourist hotels based in Arusha for visitors from the traditional source markets of Europe and North America and lately Asia.

Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever is a disease of humans and other primates caused by a virus which may be acquired upon contact with blood and other bodily fluids of an infected animal. The disease, first identified in the 1970s, has a high risk of death, killing between 50 and 90 per cent of those infected with the virus. The recent outbreak in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia has claimed nearly 1,400 lives.