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EU welcomes end of Ebola epidemic, vows to support affected countries

Xinhua, January 14, 2016 Adjust font size:

The European Union (EU) welcomed the end of Ebola epidemic and would continue to help the three affected countries in West Africa to rebuild and strengthen their health systems, said a senior EU official on Thursday.

The EU Ebola Coordinator and Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides made the remarks following the declaration of the World Health Organization that the Ebola transmissions in West Africa have come to an end for the moment as Liberia marks 42 days without new Ebola cases, an important landmark that neighboring Guinea and Sierra Leone crossed last November and December.

"This day one year ago, the end of the Ebola epidemic may have seemed unimaginable. But thanks to the effort of health workers, ordinary people, and governments in the three affected countries, combined with an unprecedented international response, the fight against the disease has been won," said Stylianides in a statement.

Overall, together with its member states, the EU has mobilized close to 2 billion euros (about 2.2 billion U.S. dollars) in humanitarian aid, technical expertise, longer-term development assistance, and research into vaccines and treatments, according to the statement.

The statement emphasized that the international system needs to fix the failures which became all too apparent in the inadequacy of the response to the disease in the early months of 2014, noting that the EU "is setting up a European Medical Corps through which medical teams and equipment from our member states can be deployed swiftly to deal with future health emergencies."

The EU also vowed in the statement that it is "more important than ever to help the three countries rebuild and strengthen their health systems and to invest in effective and resilient alert and response mechanisms."

"These are essential requirements to prevent any future outbreak from spreading. The EU's commitment to support the affected countries remains firm," said the statement. Endit