Ebola: taking stock at the end of the second year of the epidemic - Main contents
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has now been with us for almost two years. Things are looking much, much better on the ground. But we are not yet down to a 'resilient zero'.
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has now been with us for almost two years. Things are looking much, much better on the ground. There have only been a very small number of new cases every week since the summer of this year. But the crisis is not over yet. Liberia had been free of Ebola for months when suddenly, on 19 November, a new case emerged. So we are not yet down to a 'resilient zero', as we had hoped we would be by now.
Against this background, I have just sent my third report as EU Ebola Coordinator to the European Council. It takes stock of the situation on the ground, and of how our response is shifting (from emergency aid to recovery - but keeping key assets such as the EU Mobile Laboratories on the ground). And above all, it summarizes the main lessons we have learned, as EU, from our Ebola response. Because it is key that we learn the lessons from this epidemic. To make sure we are not taken by a surprise the next time there is a big health emergency.
So what are the key lessons? There are many things that worked well in the EU response. To name just a few: we got emergency funding to the frontline responders rapidly, as soon as the crisis started in March 2014. We put humanitarian experts on the ground in the three countries. We put in place an EU medical evacuation system, open to all international health workers - with 16 Medevac operations carried out so far. We made a big contribution to the recovery efforts of the three countries, with our development assistance. We provided serious funding for Ebola research - and we got this to our partners in the medical and research world in record time. We helped our Member States deploy people and equipment. We mobilized a record number of epidemiologists from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) - this was crucial in French-speaking Guinea, in particular. Our EU Delegations in the three affected countries did a great job, staying operational throughout. And we helped our Member States boost their preparedness for Ebola at home.
And then there are lessons on what we need to do better. One thing stands out. Mobilizing medical teams to work in the front line at the height of the crisis, when they were desperately needed. There was a real gap here, in spite of the heroic work done by medical workers from a small number of EU Member States who did step up. And we are working on addressing this. We are now building up a "European Medical Corps" - taking up the "White Helmets" idea launched by some of our Member States in late 2014. This will be a stand-by reserve of medical responders and equipment, made available on a voluntary basis by Member States - but ready to be mobilized as part of a European response when needed. We will launch this formally in early 2016. It will be a central element of learning from Ebola to do even better next time a major crisis with health consequences strikes.
Read my full report here: http://ec.europa.eu/commission/2014-2019/stylianides/announcements/third-report-christos-stylianides-eu-ebola-coordinator-european-council-16-december-2015_en
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