KINGSTON, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- As the Ebola virus continues to claim lives in West Africa, small and vulnerable nations on the other side of the Atlantic agreed to intensify their efforts to keep the deadly epidemic out of their borders.
At a special meeting focused on Ebola preparations which was held in Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) adopted a 10-point plan to shoot the devil before its arrival.
The plan, including intensifying port control, creating response teams, launching educational campaigns, taking resource-mobilization efforts, and establishing coordinating mechanisms, will come in line with a fund which ensures implementation.
Following the meeting, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced that her government will contribute 100,000 U.S. dollars to initiate the fund.
Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda, who chaired the meeting as the CARICOM rotating chairperson, said that combating epidemic diseases like Ebola needs efforts of the whole community.
Browne is right. For Caribbean countries, most of which are small and island nations with debt load averaging 71 percent of the GDP, huge investment in preparation for fighting Ebola is obviously out of individuals' reach.
In Jamaica, though the government has carried out a plan to intensify surveillance on port of entry weeks ago, 71 hand-held thermal sensing units are still on the way.
Although preparation work went on slowly, Jamaica has made progress. The government announced on Tuesday that a "fully equipped" dedicated treatment center has been established and an Ebola Control Center is under construction.
Meanwhile, Health Minister of Jamaica Fenton Ferguson said that the travel ban on persons from the countries hit the hardest by Ebola is still in effect and Jamaicans traveling to those countries will be subject to quarantine on their return to the island.
Jamaica is not the only nation imposing a ban in the region. With limited resources to cope with a possible outbreak of the disease, more and more tourism-dependant islands have joined the list of countries closing their doors to visitors from Ebola-stricken countries in West Africa.
Guyana, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda have also adopted similar restrictions for passengers from certain areas.
As St. Lucia's Prime Minister Kenny Anthony said, his country is so poor and small that it does not have the capacity to manage any crisis that lands on their doorstep.
Browne also defended the restriction as Ebola poses a threat to the region's tourism. The virus could have grave consequences for small states as they do not have the capacity to respond to the outbreak of a disease like Ebola.
Since the United States reported the first imported case of Ebola last month, greater attention has been called for in the Caribbean.
"This case is at one of the gateways to the Caribbean and provides further evidence that as a region, we need to be alert and prepared as a threat to regional health security may emerge from any country," said James Hospedales, executive director of the Caribbean Public Health Agency.
A total of 4,951 people have died from Ebola and there have been 13,567 cases in eight countries since the outbreak began, according to a WHO report released last week.
The Caribbean countries have not seen any confirmed case of Ebola to date. However, the risk of an imported case in the region is real, according to Marcos Espinal, director of Department of Communicable Diseases and Health Analysis of the Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization.
"It is important that our countries' health systems be prepared to respond quickly to cases of Ebola and make sure it does not spread," he said.
|
