EU states 'can do more' to battle Ebola virus

Former Irish European commissioner David Byrne has called on Ireland and other EU states to do more to fight the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in west Africa.

Mr Byrne, who held the health portfolio in the European Commission from 1999 to 2004, is one of 44 prominent public health experts who signed a letter in The Lancet medical journal that urged Western governments to “mobilise all possible resources” to assist west Africa in controlling the epidemic. On Friday, the death toll from the disease passed the 3,000 mark, six months after the outbreak began.

The Irish Government could help by facilitating medical staff to take career breaks so they can volunteer to work fighting the disease, and by providing medical supplies to control the spread of infection, Mr Byrne told The Irish Times yesterday.

The EU Commission has donated more than €180 million to help fight the epidemic, he said. “It’s for the governments of the member states now to up their game. The EU doesn’t have the ability to send health personnel into west Africa in the numbers needed, but the health communities in each country can.”

Ireland is a long-standing supporter of the WHO and enjoys a good reputation internationally for its aid work, he pointed out. It is also a signatory of an international agreement that requires countries to be supportive when the WHO declares an outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern,” as it has done in the case of the current Ebola outbreak.“We’re now dealing with an outbreak of a serious disease in developing countries that don’t have the resources to fight it. Meanwhile, the developed world hasn’t given enough attention to the problem, probably because it doesn’t think the disease will spread further,” said Byrne.

Irish Aid has made donations totalling about €460,000 in response to the Ebola outbreak.

The Lancet letter said the Ebola epidemic has “spiralled completely out of control” after months of “inaction and neglect” from the international community.

“Today, the virus is a threat not only to the countries where the outbreak has overwhelmed the capacity of national health systems, but also to the entire world.

“The Ebola epidemic represents a public health imperative; unchecked, it might very well become a geopolitical one.”
View article in Irish Times here