Ebola experts recommend the reopening of borders
Kinshasa, 29/08/2014 / Africa
The borders must be open, but with better sanitary control of the crossings. All consider border closures decided by the Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea-Bissau as useless and rather damaging.
Close the borders to prevent the spread or open to allow a coordinated
response to the epidemic and allow the passage of humanitarian?
This is the dilemma for experts and Ministers of Health of the
countries of ECOWAS, meeting in Accra, Ghana last Thursday to talk about
Ebola. The epidemic claimed 1,552 deaths, according to the latest report of the World Health Organization.
All the talk of health experts as political were unanimous Thursday in Accra, Ghana, which brought together Ministers of Health of the countries of the Economic Community of the West Africa (ECOWAS): the borders should be open, but with better sanitary control of the crossings. All consider border closures decided by the Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea-Bissau as useless and rather damaging. They fear a social and humanitarian crisis: NGOs can not access the affected countries and their equipment does not happen again. The Ministers of Health of Liberia and Sierra Leone have also not been able to come to Accra for lack of commercial flights available.
"Do not ostracize" affected countries
Ghanaian President, Chairman of ECOWAS, has reiterated: there must be a coordinated response to deal with the epidemic. "Ebola branded our country. We have no choice but to combine our efforts and resources to combat it, "he has said. John Dramani Mahama denounced the isolation in which the affected countries were set by their neighbors, saying it must implement containment measures that "do not ostracize" contaminated countries. But he also notes the impact of these measures on uncontaminated countries, "Nations that depend largely on tourism recorded cancellations of visits even though there are no reported cases on their ground," said the president of ECOWAS.
Consequently border closures: some places have become inaccessible to health agencies - a situation that could change as the Ministers in Accra agreed to the establishment of humanitarian corridors. The experts also recommended close monitoring of patients and their families, which will appease neighboring countries not yet affected by the virus.
The "against-productive" measures
Resume sailings from countries to countries affected. Shared by the association Doctors Without Borders, which also denounced the quarantine areas or entire regions opinion:
"The quarantine measures (...), who seem to leave good intentions of public health, are against-productive, assures Claire Magone, communication director for MSF France, currently serving in Sierra Leone. All these measures to isolate the affected communities not affected communities, they make sense in cases where the epidemic is highly localized. But there it is extended. Being able to seal the borders, it is a bit of a medieval idea. And finally, she says, these measures also have an effect against-productive because they worry because they are scary. Because for someone who faces the harsh reality of the diagnosis of the disease, know that you will be rewarded for going to notify you to the health center to accept you isolate, manage and that during this time, your family will be locked up for 21 days, it's still a rather qu'incitative "discouraging measure.
$ 200 million pledged by the African Development Bank
ECOWAS needs money to stem the epidemic. Many health centers in Liberia and Sierra Leone can not accommodate patients. Must be recruited in emergency health personnel and implement quarantine measures in some areas. A solidarity fund has been set up in July, but only two of the fifteen countries of ECOWAS members have yet participated. The African Development Bank has pledged more than $ 200 million, the field agents are eagerly awaiting.
In Accra, representatives from several countries have admitted to have realized too late the danger. A symbolic gesture in Accra could be decided finally proof of their willingness to act: sending medical teams of the sub-region as reinforcements in infected areas. https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.digitalcongo.net%2F&edit-text=
All the talk of health experts as political were unanimous Thursday in Accra, Ghana, which brought together Ministers of Health of the countries of the Economic Community of the West Africa (ECOWAS): the borders should be open, but with better sanitary control of the crossings. All consider border closures decided by the Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea-Bissau as useless and rather damaging. They fear a social and humanitarian crisis: NGOs can not access the affected countries and their equipment does not happen again. The Ministers of Health of Liberia and Sierra Leone have also not been able to come to Accra for lack of commercial flights available.
"Do not ostracize" affected countries
Ghanaian President, Chairman of ECOWAS, has reiterated: there must be a coordinated response to deal with the epidemic. "Ebola branded our country. We have no choice but to combine our efforts and resources to combat it, "he has said. John Dramani Mahama denounced the isolation in which the affected countries were set by their neighbors, saying it must implement containment measures that "do not ostracize" contaminated countries. But he also notes the impact of these measures on uncontaminated countries, "Nations that depend largely on tourism recorded cancellations of visits even though there are no reported cases on their ground," said the president of ECOWAS.
Consequently border closures: some places have become inaccessible to health agencies - a situation that could change as the Ministers in Accra agreed to the establishment of humanitarian corridors. The experts also recommended close monitoring of patients and their families, which will appease neighboring countries not yet affected by the virus.
The "against-productive" measures
Resume sailings from countries to countries affected. Shared by the association Doctors Without Borders, which also denounced the quarantine areas or entire regions opinion:
"The quarantine measures (...), who seem to leave good intentions of public health, are against-productive, assures Claire Magone, communication director for MSF France, currently serving in Sierra Leone. All these measures to isolate the affected communities not affected communities, they make sense in cases where the epidemic is highly localized. But there it is extended. Being able to seal the borders, it is a bit of a medieval idea. And finally, she says, these measures also have an effect against-productive because they worry because they are scary. Because for someone who faces the harsh reality of the diagnosis of the disease, know that you will be rewarded for going to notify you to the health center to accept you isolate, manage and that during this time, your family will be locked up for 21 days, it's still a rather qu'incitative "discouraging measure.
$ 200 million pledged by the African Development Bank
ECOWAS needs money to stem the epidemic. Many health centers in Liberia and Sierra Leone can not accommodate patients. Must be recruited in emergency health personnel and implement quarantine measures in some areas. A solidarity fund has been set up in July, but only two of the fifteen countries of ECOWAS members have yet participated. The African Development Bank has pledged more than $ 200 million, the field agents are eagerly awaiting.
In Accra, representatives from several countries have admitted to have realized too late the danger. A symbolic gesture in Accra could be decided finally proof of their willingness to act: sending medical teams of the sub-region as reinforcements in infected areas. https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.digitalcongo.net%2F&edit-text=
