EP says Ebola global threat

BRUSSELS, Sept 18 (KUNA) -- The Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa has been underrated by the international community and now constitutes a challenge to global security, the European Parliament said in a resolution voted on Thursday.
As the affected countries face socio-economic collapse, the deployment of military assets under the UN flag should be considered and access to existing treatments speeded up, it says.
It underlines that the affected countries already suffer shortages of food and clean water, and face economic collapse due to the disruption of trade, cancellation of commercial flights and loss of harvests caused by the pandemic.
It warns that social unrest, people fleeing affected areas, and chaos is only spreading the virus further.
It calls on the European Commission to assess the needs and draw up country-specific plans in order to determine and coordinate demand for and deployment of health personnel, mobile laboratories, equipment, protective clothing and treatment centres.
Since the Ebola outbreak was officially declared on 22 March 2014 in Guinea, it has spread to four other countries (Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Senegal), infecting almost 4,000 people and causing more than 2,000 deaths. According to the World Health Organization, the number of patients could grow to over 20,000 over the next three months. (end) nk.mt