Experts Address Ebola

LISANDRA FARIÑAS ACOSTA

From October 29-30 - as part of one of the agreements established during the recently held Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-Peoples´ Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP) Extraordinary Summit on Ebola - a technical meeting of experts and directors from ALBA-TCP member countries will be held, to share experiences and knowledge, as well as prevention and control strategies against the global threat of Ebola.

Experts from 30 countries will convene at the Havana Convention Center with the aim of forming, on the basis of the different national action plans to combat the virus, a collective regional strategy.

According to the Summit agreements, in light of this meeting, the Ministries of Public Health of ALBA-TCP countries should develop an Action Plan to be implemented immediately, in coordination with the World and Pan American Health Organizations. The Plan will be submitted for consideration to the ALBA-TCP heads of state and governments, no later than November 5, 2014.

During the encounter experts will focus on four key areas: diagnosis, treatment and epidemiological surveillance, clinical management of the patient, human resource training and social awareness of the virus.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified the current situation as an international “public health emergency” given the threat of the disease spreading to other countries and regions of the world.

ALBA-TCP countries emphasized that it is possible to contain the Ebola outbreak if the established security and health actions, and other effective preventatives measures are applied, for which they are combining efforts.