The German government has met with humanitarian organisations so as to better coordinate measures to tackle Ebola. Assistance must get to where it is most urgently needed as swiftly and effectively as possible, declared Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
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At the meeting on Wednesday at the Federal Foreign Office the current situation in the areas affected by Ebola was discussed. More than 30 representatives of humanitarian aid organisations attended, including the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), the German Red Cross, Caritas, Oxfam and Welthungerhilfe.
On Wednesday Chancellor Angela Merkel guaranteed that should helpers become infected they will be able to return to Germany where they will be assured of proper medical treatment. "The most important thing obviously is to prevent people becoming infected," said Angela Merkel during the visit of the President of the Republic of Haiti, Michel Joseph Martelly, to Berlin. Everything is being done, "so that we can tell our helpers that should they become infected – and we all very much hope that they will not – the legal position is perfectly clear, and they are entitled, indeed they have a guarantee, that they will be brought back".
The German government’s Ebola Commissioner, Walter Lindner, has announced that more volunteers are urgently needed to fight the epidemic. Doctors, nursing staff and technicians are needed. The German Red Cross has also issued another appeal for volunteers to come forward.
The first Bundeswehr volunteers are to begin work in West Africa in November. The Federal Agency for Technical Relief has already seconded six experts to the region.
The German government is providing more than 100 million euros to fight Ebola. Of this sum about 31 million euros are earmarked for humanitarian aid.
On top of this, the Federal Ministry of Research is providing more than 5 million euros for research into Ebola. Reliable diagnostic techniques and treatment are to be developed as swiftly as possible. The projects benefitting from this funding are part of international activities to tackle the most pressing aspects of the problem. They are endeavouring to develop prophylaxis, run clinical tests of candidate vaccines and elaborate strategies to control the epidemic. Controls are to be improved by mobile data transmission in real time. This should make it possible to better monitor the spread of the epidemic in the affected countries, and enable more targeted intervention.
The Federal Ministry of Health is also supporting the research in the field of Ebola. From 2014 to 2017 it is promoting two projects to tackle the disease: one clinical study of a vaccine within the framework of the German Center for Infection Research, and research conducted by the Paul Ehrlich Institute which aims to develop treatment using hyper-immune plasma from survivors.
The EU is to raise funding to fight the Ebola epidemic in West Africa to one billion euros, announced Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, at the Council meeting in Brussels. An EU Ebola coordinator was also appointed at the European Council meeting on 23 October: Christos Stylianides, Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management.
On 20 October the EU ministers of foreign affairs, meeting in Luxembourg, agreed to coordinate action to fight Ebola. In response to a proposal of Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier they decided to set up a pool of expert "white helmets".
The Foreign Minister said that even now we must learn from our combined experience of dealing with the Ebola epidemic. "This crisis has demonstrated how important it is to establish a 'pool' of medical and logistics experts which could be deployed in the event of future crises," he said.
Germany is fully equipped to cope with any cases of infection. The country has seven special units trained and equipped to deal with life-threatening infectious diseases like Ebola. A total of 47 beds are currently available for immediate use. In these units Ebola patients can be treated round the clock in special isolation wards. A special system of airlocks and air circulation and filtration systems ensure that the virus cannot escape. Hospitals also have specially trained staff.
Experts are also documenting all people who have come into contact with infected individuals. Once they have been identified, they too are given medical support and isolated if appropriate. The Robert Koch Institute currently has no reports of new infections in Germany.
Although the World Health Organization has declared an "international public health emergency", the population of Germany is not at risk say the Robert Koch Institute and the Bernard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine. The international airports in Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg and Munich are well equipped and prepared to deal with highly infectious diseases. Emergency plans are in place and infected individuals can be isolated immediately.