Ebola In Africa: North America Experts Regret Delay Of International Response

 Cameroon Concord's Dr.AkwoThompson Ntuba reports that two senior North American Ebola experts are not happy with the West reaction in containing the outbreak of the Ebola virus. Dr. Barbara Knust and Dr. Gary Kobinger expressed their dissatisfaction recently in Washington Dc 

Dr  Barbara Knust of the center for disease control Atlanta Ga  USA, and Dr Gary Kobinger from the national microbiology lab Winnipeg in Canada have expressed regret over the delayed international response to the 2014 West Africa Ebola virus outbreak Cameroon Concord has learnt. Though optimistic with the present mobilization of human and material resources from Africa, UN, Western and Eastern block of nations, both medical experts made their positions public in a forum facilitated by DR Michael Schmidt at the Washington Convention Center DC during the just ended inter science conference on antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy [ICAAC] which is an annual event of the American microbiological society [AMS]. Dr Gary Kobinger in his medical discourse “Ebola outbreak response  in West Africa : A diagnostic, scientific, and Humanitarian perspective cited a number of challenges including the population , size of outbreak, complexity of the environment and the delayed international response . For her part,Dr Babara Knust while presenting her paper  “ Responding to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa:Current Status  and Lessons Learned” gave her unflinching support to Dr. Kobinger.

Members of the press were informed that many vaccines are in the pretrial phase of development like the chimpanzee VSV. Among the therapeutic trials are ZMAPP, which was produced in very small quantity for research purposes. Drs Kobinger and Knust also did inform the media that Canada is sending mobile laboratories to the countries affected to help respond appropriately with rigorous infection control which will include good burial practices without touching the bodies of the dead, disinfecting with bleach and above all training of health personnel on effective care procedures and health workers protective measures. The US and Canadian medical brains revealed that collaboration with Medecins Sans Frontiers,Samaritan Purse and other multilateral and bilateral donors will go a long way to control the outbreak .

The US Department of health and human services [HHS] including CDC ,the national institutes of health[NIH] , the food and drug administration [FDA]  and the biomedical advanced research  and development authority [BARDA] are involved in highly collaborative international research efforts towards the development of save and effective vaccines . USaid has committed more than $19 million to the Ebola response and the funds support public outreach and education, safe burial, the development of a response plans, delivery of critical medical supplies and support to health personnel. The speakers were optimistic that should the major three core activities to stop Ebola outbreak including detection of new cases, appropriate response with rigorous infection control and prevention of future interrupting transmission control be put in place, the present West Africa Ebola outbreak will be controlled.