Rome, May 29 (IANS) Italy’s government is urging Europe to step up surveillance coordination at its borders to combat the spread of Ebola, Italy’s Prime Minister Georgia Meloni’s office said in a statement on Friday.
Italy is sending a team of experts from Rome’s Spallanzani infectious diseases hospital to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) “as early as this weekend” to help combat the outbreak and strengthen monitoring and control of the virus, PM Meloni’s office added.
“Italy believes that the epidemiological situation in Central Africa linked to the recent outbreak of the Bundibugyo Ebola virus (BVD strain) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and (neighbouring) Uganda requires the utmost attention,” read the statement, Adnkronos news agency reported.
For this reason, Meloni has written to the European Union Council President Nikos Christodoulides, European Council President Antonio Costa, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the statement said.
“The aim is to urge – while respecting national prerogatives on health protection – enhanced coordination of border surveillance through common rules for managing direct and indirect arrivals from the affected areas,” the statement went on.
Meloni has proposed discussing the issue of border management at the European Council meeting on June 18-19. The government has requested a video-conference of EU health ministers on border surveillance coordination “as early as next week” and for “operational priorities” to be agreed at the EPSCO (Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council) on 16 June, according to the statement
At the national level, in coordination with Italy’s civil protection department, the health ministry has issued guidelines” for the implementation of targeted health surveillance and monitoring protocols for travellers returning from affected regions,” the statement continued.
Furthermore, “Italy will send a team of experts from the Spallanzani Institute to Kinshasa, in the DRC, to provide technical assistance, deliver medical supplies and medicines, and strengthen epidemiological surveillance,” the statement added.
Italy’s foreign and health ministries, civil protection department and foreign intelligence service have arranged the Spalanzani mission to Kinshasa, the statement noted.
There are 906 suspected cases of Ebola in DRC, including 223 suspected deaths that are being investigated, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned on Friday. Seven cases have been confirmed in Uganda, three of which were imported from DRC and one death.
WHO has upgraded the risk from the current Ebola outbreak from”high” to “very high” in DRC.
In the wider region, the risk is also now considered to be high, but it remains low internationally, the WHO added.
WHO declared a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday, when it stressed that the outbreak was not a pandemic.
There are currently no vaccines or therapies for the rare BVD strain of Ebola.
–IANS
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