Sustained response to Ebola still needed

Dr Peter Kilmarx Correspondent
THE world is facing the largest outbreak of Ebola it has ever known. Already, more than 14 000 cases of Ebola have been diagnosed in West Africa — and with sustained transmission in multiple countries and urban areas that number is only going to multiply. As part of the US government’s comprehensive strategy to

combat the spread of Ebola, I spent four weeks in Sierra Leone as the Ebola Response Team Leader for the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC, along with other US government agencies, plays a critical role in providing direction, technical assistance and funding to countries affected by the Ebola outbreak.

To date, more than 160 CDC staff members have been deployed to Sierra Leone to combat and contain Ebola.

These staff members work alongside their regional counterparts to address issues such as epidemiology and surveillance, infection control and health communications among other critical activities.

In Sierra Leone, we are striving to interrupt the transmission of Ebola and to prevent its export into other countries like the United States and Zimbabwe.

To achieve these objectives, we are working with the government of Sierra Leone to strengthen its emergency response management; to ensure safe, dignified medical burials for all victims; to isolate and treat suspected and verified cases; and to contact trace and quarantine any potential cases.

But our efforts extend beyond Sierra Leone — and it’s not just the CDC who is responding.

Since the first cases of Ebola were reported in West Africa in March 2014, the US has mounted a whole-of-government strategy to halt the Ebola epidemic.

That strategy includes controlling the spread of Ebola at its source in West Africa; managing the secondary consequences of the outbreak such as reduced economic growth; building coherent leadership and operations across governments and international organisations; and ensuring health security around the world.

This strategy also includes the deployment of more than 36 US Agency for International Development (USAID) personnel, 163 US Health and Human Services personnel and 3 200 US Department of Defensive personnel to West Africa — the largest-ever US government response to a global health crisis.

US military personnel, working with the Armed Forces of Liberia, are overseeing the construction of at least 10 Ebola Treatment Units (ETUs) while USAID-funded partners are constructing an additional five ETUs in Liberia. Each will have 100 beds, and the first ETU, built in north-west Monrovia, is already preparing to receive patients. US Naval Medical Research Centre personnel are operating three mobile labs to provide 24-hour turnaround results on samples.

And US Public Health Service personnel are staffing a new hospital the US Department of Defence constructed to care for infected medical workers.

Meanwhile, CDC and USAID personnel are conducting contact tracing; training and mobilising healthcare workers and safe burial teams; facilitating social mobilisation and community outreach programs; and providing logistical support and supplies.

USAID, along with the US Department of State, also provided up to $10 million to support the African Union’s deployment of trained and equipped medical workers to West Africa.

To ensure these efforts are sustained, the White House announced last week that it is requesting an additional $6.18 billion in emergency funding to continue our efforts to contain and eliminate Ebola.

But as US Secretary of State John Kerry said, “No one country, no individual group of nations is going to resolve this problem by themselves. This is going to take a collective, global response.”

The US is working with the World Health Organisation and other international partners to help West African governments respond to and contain the outbreak of the Ebola virus.

We’ve also galvanised support from other international partners, securing pledges of more than $800 million in financial backing in addition to significant contributions of personnel, aircraft and other resources.

In Zimbabwe, we’re working with the Ministry of Health and Child Care to support Zimbabwe Infection Prevention and Control Project (ZIPCOP). This partnership is helping to improve infection control in healthcare facilities across Zimbabwe and to prevent the transmission of infectious diseases among patients and staff.

Dr Peter Kilmarx is Country Director of the Zimbabwe office of the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. He can be reached at [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> or [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]

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