Special Ministerial Meeting on Ebola Virus Disease in West Africa Accra, Ghana, 2 - 3 July 2014

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Special Ministerial Meeting on Ebola Virus Disease in West Africa Accra, Ghana, 2 - 3 July 2014

In an effort to interrupt further spread of the Ebola virus in the shortest possible time, the World Health Organization is convening a special meeting of Ministers of Health of eleven (11) countries and partners involved in the Ebola outbreak response in Accra, Ghana from 2-3 July 2014 to discuss the best way of tackling the crisis collectively as well as develop a comprehensive inter country operational response plan

Objective



The objective is to obtain consensus from Member States and partners represented on the optimal way of interrupting the ongoing Ebola virus transmission in West Africa to reduce the human, social and economic impact of the EVD outbreak in West Africa for the current and future outbreaks. Focus will be on:

• Clear understanding of current situation and response, including gaps and challenges
• Comprehensive operational response plan for controlling the outbreak
• Priority preparedness activities to be implemented by countries at risk
• National authorities empowered to optimally respond to EVD outbreak in West Africa

Agenda and Background
English (110.69 kB) | Portugu?s (165.04 kB) | Fran?ais (213.96 kB) |

http://www.afro.who.int/en/clusters-a-programmes/dpc/epidemic-a-pandemic-alert-and-response/epr-highlights/4187-special-ministerial-meeting-ebola-accra-2-3-july-2014.html

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SPECIAL MINISTERIAL MEETING ON EBOLA VIRUS DISEASE
IN WEST AFRICA
ACCRA, GHANA, 2 - 3 JULY 2014

La Palm Golden Beach Hotel

OVERVIEW

Expert presentations in plenary and working groups on specific thematic areas will form the basis for the development of the operational response plan to the EVD outbreak in West Africa. A summary of these deliberations will be presented during the ministerial session.

The Ministerial session will focus on ways to empower the Ministries of Health and ensure inter-sectorial involvement to the response at all levels. The Ministers of Health are expected to adopt a call to action and participate in a press conference.
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BACKGROUND

Public health threats arising from epidemic, pandemic prone diseases and other public health emergencies continue to be a major concern in Member States of the African region. The emergence of Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa threatens regional and global public health security. The current outbreak, with confirmed cases in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, is characterized by an intense community spread; community resistance; a high number of affected health care workers; and a wide and diverse geographical distribution that includes major urban areas such as Conakry, remote rural areas and cross-border areas.

In response to the EVD outbreak in West Africa, the Ministries of Health of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone are implementing a series of preventive and control measures which include regular meetings of the epidemic management committees; contact identification and tracing; case management; infection and prevention control; social mobilization; and regular publication of situation reports, among others. In addition, the Ministers of Health of neighboring countries have heightened their surveillance systems at points of entry and developed EVD preparedness plans. WHO and partners continue to provide the necessary guidance and support through deployment of multidisciplinary teams of experts to support all response fields; deployment of mobile laboratories for early confirmation and monitoring of the outbreak; provision of catalytic funds through the African Public Health Emergency Fund and other sources; and high level advocacy for resource mobilization.

To reduce the human, social and economic impact of the EVD outbreak in West Africa, WHO convened this special meeting to increase the engagement of national authorities in controlling the current outbreak and in preventing future outbreaks.


LANGUAGES - Simultaneous interpretation provided in French, English and Portuguese


PARTICIPANTS


Ministers of Health and Directors of Disease prevention and control from Cote d?Ivoire, DR Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Uganda are expected to attend. Partners involved in the outbreak, extractive industry from the affected countries, UN Agencies, CDC, DFID, EU, ECHO, Institute Pasteur, IFRC, MSF USAID, and WAHO have also been invited. The WHO secretariat will be headed by the Regional Director/AFRO with technical staff from WHO HQ, the regional office, IST WA and heads of the country offices from represented countries.
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Full text:
English (110.69 kB)

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Re: Special Ministerial Meeting on Ebola Virus Disease in West Africa Accra, Ghana, 2 - 3 July 2014

Emergency Ministerial Meeting on Ebola opens in Accra, Ghana




Accra, 2 July 2014 - The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Gomes Sambo, has today re-iterated his call for urgent, collective cross-border, multi-sectoral concrete actions to bring an end to the on-going Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa.

Speaking at the opening session of the Emergency Ministerial meeting on Ebola Virus Disease in Accra, Ghana, the Regional Director urged Health Ministers of the affected countries to leave no stone unturned in their efforts to contain the outbreak. He said: ?Your leadership is critical in ensuring that preventive and containment measures are effectively implemented in your countries. To this end, I would like to stress the need to redeploy human resources and reallocate funds to facilitate operations in affected communities?.

The Regional Director observed that the continuing spread of the Ebola virus during this outbreak is to a great extent associated with some cultural practices and traditional beliefs which are contrary to recommended public health preventive measures. In addition, the extensive movement of people within and across borders has facilitated rapid spread of the infection across and within the three countries.

He underscored the critical need to inform, involve and engage community, religious and opinion leaders to be at the forefront of the response efforts as well as improved communication between the Governments, partners and communities in order to generate reliable evidence for implementation of effective and relevant actions. Dr Sambo called also on the research community to address the research gap on Ebola disease prevention and control. He appealed to the leadership of the President of the Republic of Ghana, the current President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to mobilise financial resources to support communities and countries affected by the Ebola virus disease.

Addressing the delegates, Dr Sherry Ayittey, the Minister of Health of Ghana said: ?We are here to make a real difference? a difference that will be felt beyond this room for millions of people in dire need for solutions. We have a small window of opportunity to prevent the outbreak of Ebola from spreading further.?

Health Ministers mostly from eleven West African countries, high ranking health officials and international partners are attending the two-day meeting which aims to agree on the best way to interrupt the transmission of the Ebola Virus to reduce the socio-economic impact of the disease and prevent future outbreaks.

The Ebola virus first struck human beings in 1976 in Yambuku, a village in the Democratic Republic of Congo, along the river Ebola. Since then, more than 20 Ebola outbreaks have occurred mainly in East and Central African countries.
In March 2014 Guinea notified WHO about cases of Ebola virus Disease. The cases were initially confined to rural Guinea with the epicenter being Gueckedou. What started as a rural outbreak has now spread to Conakry the capital of Guinea as well as cross border spread into Sierra Leone and Liberia.

The current Ebola outbreak has surpassed all other outbreaks in terms of cases, deaths and geographic spread across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. As at 1st July 2014, a cumulative total of 750 cases and 455 deaths have been reported in the three affected countries

During the two-day emergency meeting, Ministers of health, technical experts and partners will focus on how best to bring this outbreak under control through surveillance and laboratories; case management and infection prevention and control; logistics and finances; and social mobilization and communication. It is expected that the outcome of the meeting will be the adoption a strategy for accelerated response to contain the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

http://www.afro.who.int/en/media-centre/pressreleases/item/6692-emergency-ministerial-meeting-on-ebola-opens-in-accra-ghana.html

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Re: Special Ministerial Meeting on Ebola Virus Disease in West Africa Accra, Ghana, 2 - 3 July 2014

Health Ministers agree on priority actions to end Ebola outbreak in West Africa

Accra, 03 July 2014 ? The Emergency Ministerial meeting on Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) has ended today with Health Ministers agreeing on a range of priority actions to end the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The scale of the ongoing outbreak is unprecedented with reports of over 750 cases and 445 deaths in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia since March 2014.

In a Communiqu? issued at the end of the two-day meeting, the Ministers agreed that the current situation poses a serious threat to all countries in the region and beyond and called for immediate action. They expressed concern on the adverse social and economic impact of the outbreak and stressed the need for coordinated actions by all stakeholders, national leadership, enhanced cross-border collaboration and community participation in the response.

Speaking at the closing session, the World Health Organization?s (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo commended the Ministers and said: ?We have adopted an inter-country strategy to tackle this outbreak. It?s time for concrete action to put an end to the suffering and deaths caused by Ebola virus disease and prevent its further spread?.

In spite of the ongoing efforts to tackle the outbreak, there was consensus that a number of gaps and challenges remain. These relate to coordination of the outbreak, financing, communication, cross border collaboration, logistics, case management, infection control, surveillance, contact tracing, community participation and research.

The World Health Organization will establish a Sub-Regional Control Center in Guinea to act as a coordinating platform to consolidate and harmonize the technical support to West African countries by all major partners; and assist in resource mobilization. The delegates also underscored the importance of WHO leading an international effort to promote research on Ebola virus disease and other hemorrhagic fevers.



The Ministers adopted a common inter-country strategy which highlights the following key priority actions for the affected countries:

• Convene national inter-sectoral meetings involving key government ministries, national technical committees and other stakeholders to map out a plan for immediate implementation of the strategy.
• Mobilise community, religious, political leaders to improve awareness, and the understanding of the disease
• Strengthen surveillance, case finding reporting and contact tracing
• Deploy additional national human resources with the relevant qualifications to key hot spots.
• Identify and commit additional domestic financial resources
• Organise cross-border consultations to facilitate exchange of information
• Work and share experiences with countries that have previously managed Ebola outbreaks in the spirit of south-south cooperation

The delegates also urged partners to continue providing technical and financial support and work with WHO to effectively coordinate the response. In an effort to promote regional leadership, and highlight the seriousness of the outbreak, the delegates strongly recommended that the forthcoming Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Heads of States summit addresses the issue of EVD outbreak.

In March 2014 Guinea notified WHO about cases of Ebola virus Disease. The cases were initially confined to rural Guinea with the epicenter being Gueckedou. What started as a rural outbreak has now spread to Conakry the capital of Guinea as well as cross border spread into Sierra Leone and Liberia.

The current Ebola outbreak has surpassed all other outbreaks in terms of cases, deaths and geographic spread across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
In an effort to interrupt further spread of this virus in the shortest possible time, the World Health Organization convened an Emergency Ministerial meeting in Accra, Ghana from 2-3 July 2014 involving eleven (11) countries mostly from West Africa and a number of key international partners involved in the Ebola outbreak response. The aim of the meeting was to discuss how to contain the disease, share experiences and agree on a strategy for an accelerated operational response to bring an end to the outbreak.

http://www.afro.who.int/en/media-centre/pressreleases/item/6695-health-ministers-agree-on-priority-actions-to-end-ebola-outbreak-in-west-africa.html