Commonwealth nations urged to work together to fight Ebola

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PUTRAJAYA: There have been increasing calls for Commonwealth countries to draw up a coordinated plan to combat the spread of the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which has so far killed 4,500 people.

South Africa’s Department of Public Service and Administration chief director Dr Patrick M. Sokhela said with proper coordination and cooperation, the grouping’s countries could prepare and rapidly respond if they were hit by the deadly disease.

“I think it is timely we (Commonwealth countries) come up with a coordinated plan on this issue. This is part of the change we need to do as the Ebola crisis necessitates us to work together in managing it,” he told Bernama on the sidelines of the ongoing Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management (Capam) biennial conference yesterday.

Sierra Leone, affected by the epidemic, is a Commonwealth member while the other two non-Commmonwealth nations are Guinea and Liberia.

South Africa’s Minister of Public Service and Administration, Collins Chabane, said Commonwealth nations should urgently provide funds, medical supplies and equipment to help the three West African countries combat the Ebola epidemic, as well as keep their economies afloat.

This is in view of concerns that isolating Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to fight the spread of the disease might lead to an economic collapse of the three countries grappling with what is surely a global crisis.

He said that Ebola was no longer an African problem but undoubtedly, an international crisis since it had affected other countries, as well.

The disease has apparently spread to the United States where a Liberian man who travelled to Texas died on Oct 8 while two nurses treating him were now infected with the deadly disease.

There are fears that the victim, as well as the two nurses could have come into contact with other people but not aware of it.

Chabane said South Africa and regional countries had been sending assistance, taking advice and assisting one another in various ways to try and curb the spread of the disease.

“… but, we are trying to avoid a situation where we would close out these countries because then, there would be other repercussions, for instance, the  the economies would likely collapse,” he told Bernama.

“We need to try and assist each other to make sure that at least, we deal with the disease,” he added.

To this end, he hoped Commonwealth members, most of whom comprise African states would make a contribution to help these countries before they were severely affected.

The United Nations and World Health Organisation have called on countries to make financial contributions as well as help by sending experts and doctors, medical equipment and other resources to fight the epidemic.

Felton Thokozani Mhlongo, the Under-Secretary for the Government in Swaziland, said his country had taken all the necessary preventive measures.

“Our government also believes it is important to educate our people about the outbreak,” he said.

South Africa’s Sokhela warned that with the high mobility among travellers, some countries could be unaware they had been affected by the outbreak.

A coordinated plan will allow countries to share data on the development of the outbreak and availability of expertise to contain the disease which so far, seems to be getting out of hand in the three affected countries.

Meanwhile, the Head of Nigeria’s Civil Service, Danladi Irmiya Kifasi said he was jubilant to hear the news that his country was declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organisation (WHO) although eight of the 20 people afflicted by the disease had died.

It was reported yesterday that the WHO declared Nigeria officially Ebola-free, after 42 days — or two incubation periods — without any new confirmed cases of the deadly virus. — Bernama