Christos Stylianides, Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management in Jean-Claude Juncker’s new Commission is the EU’s Ebola Coordinator. He was appointed on 23 October by the European Council.

Europe will do its bit to ensure that serious action is taken to tackle this "dreadful scourge for humanity", declared Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday in Brussels.

Coordinated action against Ebola

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.

German aid stepped up to over 100 million euros

Last week the German government announced that it would be providing another 84.7 million euros to fight Ebola, bringing German assistance to over 100 million euros.

Walter Lindner, Germany’s Ebola Commissioner, has been to West Africa to find out more first hand. His trip to the crisis-affected region aimed to ensure measures are coordinated on the ground.

Germany is providing human resources, expertise, medevac capacities and funding, praised US Secretary of State John Kerry when he visited Berlin on Wednesday. He said that Germany was at the forefront of efforts to stem the epidemic.

Five million euros more for Ebola research

The Federal Ministry of Research is to provide additional funding of more than five 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.

More volunteers needed

The German Red Cross is still looking for volunteers to man its field hospitals in Liberia and Sierra Leone. To keep the facilities operating, still more qualified medical staff is needed.

With the Federal Minister of Health Hermann Gröhe and the German Medical Association, the German Red Cross launched an appeal on 25 September for medical staff to volunteer for the difficult mission in West Africa. More volunteers are still needed.

More than 3,000 Bundeswehr volunteers have come forward for an assignment in the areas affected by Ebola. Of them about 250 were found to be suitable on the basis of their health status and a number of other criteria. They are currently undergoing training. Forty volunteers already have all the vaccinations required, are in training, and will be able to fly out to West Africa at the start of November.

Germany is well prepared

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.

So far only three beds in the isolation wards have been needed. Currently one Ebola patient is being treated in Frankfurt. A patient treated in Hamburg has recovered and been released from hospital, while another patient treated in Leipzig has died. All three patients became infected in Africa. They were flown back in strict isolation to specialist units in Germany.

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 has no reports of new infections in Germany.

No threat to the population

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.