THE Australian government must do more to tackle the Ebola epidemic, the Australian Red Cross says.
ITS international program head Peter Walton said the epidemic, which has killed 4000 people in west Africa since January, affects everybody around the world and he urged both the Australian government and the community to do more.
“We have an obligation to really up the response so that it can be contained in West Africa while there still is a window of opportunity,” Mr Walton told reporters in Melbourne on Monday. He said the federal government needed to constantly review its response to the outbreak. The Australian government has contributed $18 million to tackle the spread of Ebola but Prime Minister Tony Abbott says no troops or logistical support will be sent to help combat the virus. The Australian Red Cross is part of a global response that has volunteers on the ground in 14 West African countries but they need more funding to fill the gaps in the response to the outbreak, Mr Walton said. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in the US has warned that under a worst-case scenario cases could explode to 1.4 million worldwide by January. “The current response isn’t meeting all the needs of the West Africa community,” Mr Walton said. “Health systems are completely over-burdened, Ebola treatment centres are not able to cope with the demand. “This isn’t just a public health crisis, it is a broader humanitarian crisis that is impacting on the way of life of people in all manner of ways.” He said the whole international community should do much more.