The Independent
by CHRIS GREEN, CHARLIE COOPER
The Ebola virus spreading exponentially across Africa and killing thousands of people “will get worse”, the Government has admitted, amid calls for the full involvement of the international military to contain the disease.
Justine Greening, the International Development Secretary, said that ministers had been shocked by a prediction from the US public health institute that 1.4 million people may be infected by the virus by January if it continues unchecked.
As ministers, diplomats and humanitarian organisations from 20 different countries pledged a further £79 million to control the outbreak, which has already killed more than 3,000 people, a group of 35 European security officials issued a joint declaration suggesting that Ebola should be treated in the same way as the threat posed by nuclear weapons.
The statement from the European Leadership Network, signed by five former UK defence secretaries, stated that Ebola was clearly “outstripping the ability of health care systems and workers to respond” and called for heads of state to be directly involved in efforts to eradicate it “for the long term good of humanity”.
“We need urgently to elevate international cooperation on this challenge and other public health issues to European and global head-of-state-level,” they wrote.
“This has been done in recent years on issues like the security of weapons using nuclear materials and it should be the response triggered now by the Ebola crisis.”
Speaking during a conference in London to co-ordinate the global response to the outbreak, Ms Greening said that establishing the extent of the disease had been “challenging” for officials, but that it would be “far harder” to stop Ebola in future if action was not taken immediately.
“What we do know is that if we fail to take action to tackle Ebola, it will allow this disease – which has already proved itself fatal to so many people – to spread unchecked,” she said.
“We should also be clear that this disease and the numbers of people infected will get worse before it gets better. This is about bearing down on the rate of transmission that we’re currently seeing so we can bring that down, get it under control and… start to eradicate Ebola.”
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