Hailemariam Desalegn said the response to the epidemic in west Africa should not be “only for the non-Africans”, urging African states to respond to an African Union appeal to send medical staff to affected areas.<\/p>\n

“We should show that there is a solidarity within the African countries,” he told reporters.<\/p>\n

“Usually the notion is that whenever this kind of epidemic happens, it is the Western countries and other big countries that have to be involved,” he said.<\/p>\n

But he added: “We have to break this and show that Africans also are there for Africans. We should try our best to bring African solutions to African problems.”<\/p>\n

Last week Ethiopia sent 187 health volunteers to Sierra Leone and Liberia, the largest contingent of medical professionals from any African country since the Ebola crisis began. Desalegn said a further 1,000 volunteers were ready to go.<\/p>\n

A number of African states, however, are reluctant to send volunteers, due to either a lack of means or fears they are not equipped to deal with any who return infected with the virus.<\/p>\n

Ethiopia’s health minister, Kesete Birhan Admasu, said the Ethiopian volunteers returning home would be placed under medical surveillance for three weeks.<\/p>\n

But he has also called on African nations to accelerate efforts to establish a continental centre along the lines of the United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).<\/p>\n

“Had we have established this centre last year, Africa might have responded early and could have contained the virus,” he said.<\/p>\n

Source : AFP
\nImage: Florian Paucher\/ AFP File<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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