The World Bank has hosted a crisis meeting to discuss fighting the Ebola outbreak. The European commission and the US have responded with plans to evacuate suspected cases to help contain the Ebola outbreak.
Despite increasingly urgent appeals for foreign medical staff, many have chosen to stay away from West Africa. Now the European Commission and the U-S government have responded at a crisis meeting hosted by the World Bank.
"In terms of immediate tasks right now, first, something that I admit we have struggled with for quite some time, medevac. Finally, we have a solution, we have a contract. As Ngozi said, turn to the private-- when you are desperate, turn to the private sector, they’ll come up with a solution for you. So, we can, under 48 hours, guarantee the evacuation of international medical staff, crucial for more people to go," Kristalina Georgieva with European Commission said.
Though details haven’t been provided, the U-S commitment appears to be broader, including all "responders" to the emergency.
"It would be a very helpful recruiting message if we come out of this roundtable and say that a definitive outcome is we can provide medical evacuation where that is indicated for responders, including health care workers," Rajiv Shah, administrator of US Agency For Int’l Development, said.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf joined the meeting by video conference.
"I believe what Administrator Shah has committed to, medical evacuation, will remove a major constraint from their willingness to return to the operations that are so much needed for us to continue to ensure that the economy does not go into major decline," Lberian president Johnson Sirleaf said.
This week, a report from the World Bank estimated the cost of the crisis could surpass 32 billion dollars, of which most relates to what health officials term "aversion behavior" - people and businesses not directly affected choosing to avoid economic activity in West Africa. The co-author of that report says the commitment on medical evacuations will help mitigate this.
"The emphasis is on the need to reduce the aversion behavior by reassuring people first of all that they can go to help, that outsiders who want to go to help can do so safely and can be evacuated if they, by bad luck or some mistake, happen to get sick," Mead Over, senior fellow with Center For Global Development, said.
The medical evacuation commitments are significant in the fight to help patients, the efforts to contain the spread of Ebola and the message of reassurance to the international community.