Nations from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) gathered at an urgent meeting on Wednesday to discuss joint measures for prevention and control of the Ebola outbreak. Ahead of the annual Hajj that draws millions of people in Saudi Arabia, health officials decided on steps, including travel bans and cancellation of entry visas.
Representatives from the GCC states united over the common goal of preventing a possible spread of the Ebola virus, which has affected around 2,000 people and killed 1,070, according to data from the World Health Organization. The executive bureau of the GCC committee of health ministers met in Riyadh this Wednesday to review and update the countries’ readiness and plans to cope with the threat. It issued a list of recommendations, which include setting up a unified early warning system to detect infectious diseases, sharing information, and “integrating medical diagnoses”.
Officials also agreed on a shared access to any vaccines or treatments among the countries and even organizing purchases through a centralized mechanism.
The meeting comes after the WHO declared Ebola an international public health emergency, with leading experts admitting the outbreak is out of control. During the Hajj season, around two million people arrive in Saudi Arabia each year, many of them from Africa, including the affected nations of Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. However, the threat of possible spread of the disease is not only to Saudi Arabia, but to the entire region. The kingdom, together with Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar, have warned its citizens that traveling to West Africa is dangerous, but the GCC Health Ministers’ Council has not yet issued a formal advisory or travel ban.
There is no effective treatment or vaccine to prevent infection with the deadly Ebola virus, but an experimental drug that possibly lead to the recovery of two American missionaries, will be given to sick doctors in Liberia. ZMapp, as it is called, hasn’t been yet tested on humans and its actual effect is unknown. Canada also said it is donating 800 to 1,000 doses of a vaccine, which is still in attest phase but offers hope to the affected communities in West Africa.
Although Ebola has killed around 1,070 people and infected at least 1,975, WHO Director General Margaret Chan said that currently, more than one million people are affected by the disease. She also warned that there is “no early end in sight” of the severe health crisis, which can rapidly turn into a humanitarian crisis. And right now, every city around the world with an international airport is at risk of an imported case.
