KEY POINTS
WFP has started distributing food rations in Bamako, Mali, to households under observation.
A training center for response workers was opened in Conakry, Guinea.
A total of 17,145 confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) have been reported in 8 countries. There have been 6,070 reported deaths.
Key Political and Economic Developments
Europe must send more medical staff to West Africa to help rebuild local health systems and tackle the outbreak of EVD, EU Ebola coordinator Christos Stylianides has said, adding that he was in touch with European capitals on additional assistance to counter the disease in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Mali. At European level the mobilisation is "satisfactory but we must not relax our efforts" he indicated. Sweden has already announced that it will send 42 healthcare workers, while Greece is readying its first team. The EU's medical evacuation system is "fully operational" with four planes on standby in Luxembourg and the US, and nine countries ready to treat repatriated staff. Mr. Stylianides is due to present an EVD action plan in December. Brussels is counting on more help;
MSF expressed concern on Tuesday about what it called a slow and uneven international response that portends further setbacks. MSF president Dr. Joanne Liu acknowledged an outpouring of financial and construction help from abroad in the past few months, but added that most of the work on tracking, isolating and treating patients, burying the dead and raising awareness to minimize contagion had fallen to the three countries at the heart of the outbreak: Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. "It is extremely disappointing that states with biological disaster response capacities have chosen not to utilize them," Dr. Liu said. "How is it that the international community has left the response to Ebola — now a transnational threat — to doctors, nurses and charity workers?"
