NAIROBI. 17 SEPTEMBER 2014 - A two-day High Level Multi-Sectoral Ministerial meeting on emergency preparedness and response to Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak ended yesterday in Nairobi, Kenya with a call on East African countries to strengthen measures to prevent the spread of the disease in eastern Africa. 

Addressing the delegates, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo stressed the need for the countries to strengthen their core capacities to detect and respond to public health events in line with the International Health Regulations. "This is the only way we could envision a future where we would be able to early detect and timely manage any public health event,” he said.

The negative consequence of the outbreak transcends the health sector with significant impact on eco-nomic performance, tourism, food security, culture and other sectors of the affected countries. The Regional Director observed that based on WHO’s assessment of the level of preparedness of countries to respond to EVD, there is the need to update and fund the implementation of national preparedness plans in accordance with the guidelines already provided by WHO. He also stressed the importance of multi-sectoral collaboration to ensure that required core competencies are available within national inter-sectoral coordination mechanisms.

Referring to travel bans that have been imposed by some countries, he said: “These measures are compromising the deployment of international staff and supplies that are required to tackle the outbreak. They are not consistent with the recommendations of the International Health Regulations - Emergency Committee on Ebola outbreak.”

In a joint communique issued after the meeting, participants agreed to enhance cross-border collabora-tion and information sharing, encourage research on Ebola, mobilize resources to support preparedness and response and provide technical and logistical support to the affected countries.

The meeting also adopted the Regional Ebola Emergency Preparedness and Response which aims at strengthening preparedness and readiness of all countries. The plan, with an estimated budget of nearly USD 64 million, outlines a minimum package for country readiness for an Ebola outbreak and identifies eight high priority countries to receive intense support over the next three months, with similar support to the remaining countries. 

In his opening remarks, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Health, Hon. James W. Macharia, noted that the scale and magnitude of the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa was unprecedented, both in terms of the number of those affected and the geographical spread of the disease. “This has necessitated adoption of a coordinated common approach to prevent introduction of the dis-ease to the unaffected countries, while interrupting transmission in the affected countries,” he said. He also expressed satisfaction with arrangements being made by the African Union to establish an African Centre for Disease Control saying that this would enable Africans to carry out research on African health priorities, share information, and implement effective and coordinated responses.  

The meeting was organized by the East African Community Secretariat in collaboration with the Republic of Kenya, the Intergovernmental Agency for Development IGAD and the World Health Organization.