http://www.afro.who.int/en/media-centre/pressreleases/item/6695-health-ministers-agree-on-priority-actions-to-end-ebola-outbreak-in-west-africa.html
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Keep it simple:
if something is endemic it
means it is found regularly, eg measles etc...
if something is epidemic it means that it is not normally occur that often, and the infection levels have risen ALOT, this is within a particular country
if something is pandemic then it means the a particular disease has risen sharply in a short space of time over a whole continent or many countries..
if something is epidemic it means that it is not normally occur that often, and the infection levels have risen ALOT, this is within a particular country
if something is pandemic then it means the a particular disease has risen sharply in a short space of time over a whole continent or many countries..
Health Ministers agree
on priority actions to end Ebola outbreak in West Africa
Accra,
03 July 2014 – The Emergency Ministerial meeting on Ebola Virus Disease
(EVD) has ended today with Health Ministers agreeing on a range of priority
actions to end the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The scale of the ongoing
outbreak is unprecedented with reports of over 750 cases and 445 deaths in
Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia since March 2014.
In a Communiqué issued
at the end of the two-day meeting, the Ministers agreed that the current
situation poses a serious threat to all countries in the region and beyond and
called for immediate action. They expressed concern on the adverse social and economic
impact of the outbreak and stressed the need for coordinated actions by all
stakeholders, national leadership, enhanced cross-border collaboration and
community participation in the response.
Speaking at the
closing session, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Regional Director for
Africa, Dr Luis Sambo commended the Ministers and said: “We have adopted an
inter-country strategy to tackle this outbreak. It’s time for concrete action
to put an end to the suffering and deaths caused by Ebola virus disease and
prevent its further spread”.
In spite of the
ongoing efforts to tackle the outbreak, there was consensus that a number of
gaps and challenges remain. These relate to coordination of the outbreak,
financing, communication, cross border collaboration, logistics, case
management, infection control, surveillance, contact tracing, community
participation and research.
The World Health Organization will establish a Sub-Regional Control Center in Guinea to act as a coordinating platform to consolidate and harmonize the technical support to West African countries by all major partners; and assist in resource mobilization. The delegates also underscored the importance of WHO leading an international effort to promote research on Ebola virus disease and other hemorrhagic fevers.
The Ministers adopted a common inter-country strategy which highlights the following key priority actions for the affected countries:
The World Health Organization will establish a Sub-Regional Control Center in Guinea to act as a coordinating platform to consolidate and harmonize the technical support to West African countries by all major partners; and assist in resource mobilization. The delegates also underscored the importance of WHO leading an international effort to promote research on Ebola virus disease and other hemorrhagic fevers.
The Ministers adopted a common inter-country strategy which highlights the following key priority actions for the affected countries:
·
Convene national inter-sectoral meetings involving key
government ministries, national technical committees and other stakeholders to
map out a plan for immediate implementation of the strategy.
·
Mobilise community, religious, political leaders to improve awareness,
and the understanding of the disease
·
Strengthen surveillance, case finding reporting and contact
tracing
·
Deploy additional national human resources with the relevant
qualifications to key hot spots.
·
Identify and commit additional domestic financial resources
·
Organise cross-border consultations to facilitate exchange of
information
·
Work and share experiences with countries that have previously
managed Ebola outbreaks in the spirit of south-south cooperation
The delegates also
urged partners to continue providing technical and financial support and work
with WHO to effectively coordinate the response. In an effort to promote
regional leadership, and highlight the seriousness of the outbreak, the
delegates strongly recommended that the forthcoming Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS) Heads of States summit addresses the issue of EVD
outbreak.
In March 2014 Guinea
notified WHO about cases of Ebola virus Disease. The cases were initially
confined to rural Guinea with the epicenter being Gueckedou. What started as a
rural outbreak has now spread to Conakry the capital of Guinea as well as cross
border spread into Sierra Leone and Liberia. The current Ebola outbreak has
surpassed all other outbreaks in terms of cases, deaths and geographic spread
across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
In an effort to
interrupt further spread of this virus in the shortest possible time, the World
Health Organization convened an Emergency Ministerial meeting in Accra, Ghana
from 2-3 July 2014 involving eleven (11) countries mostly from West Africa and
a number of key international partners involved in the Ebola outbreak response.
The aim of the meeting was to discuss how to contain the disease, share
experiences and agree on a strategy for an accelerated operational response to
bring an end to the outbreak.
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