One of Australia’s leading doctors has been appointed the country’s Ebola tsar with the job of overseeing the response to the epidemic.
The ABC was granted exclusive access to the meeting between chief medical officers from across Australia, where it was revealed infectious disease expert Professor Lyn Gilbert would spearhead the country’s response.
Professor Gilbert is an expert in infectious diseases at the University of Sydney.
Key to Professor Gilbert’s role will be assessing, and if need be, overhauling infection control in all Australian hospitals.
“This is obviously going to be the place where the pointy end is when we get any patients with Ebola,” she told the ABC.
“We need to have a well organised and uniform approach and make sure we are communicating that to healthcare workers and community.”
Chief medical officer Professor Chris Baggoley said a number of Ebola defence strategies were being considered.
“From when people come to the country; from how they are assessed, issues like contract tracing, issues like personal protective equipment, how the health profession might look after them,” he said.
Between 15 and 30 people are arriving in Australia each week from the Ebola-affected countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
Professor Baggoley said after the arrivals were screened, it was important they knew the right places to go for help if they started displaying Ebola symptoms.
“What we are keen to do is not have people at risk go to general practice,” he said.
“We’re keen to make sure there are mechanisms to make sure they go to designated hospitals wherever possible.”
The meeting came as Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) officials told a Senate committee that both the US and the UK had asked Australia to send personnel to help fight Ebola in West Africa.
The Government has so far refused to send health workers to Africa, arguing that it would be unable to evacuate them if they became infected with the deadly virus.
Professor Baggoley said he would like to see Australian medical teams sent into the hot zone.
“I’d like to see doctors and nurses working in all the Ebola treatment units that are being set up, whether they be Australia or from Europe or from the US or from Africa,” he said.
“And particularly, I’d like to see the local healthcare workers working in these treatment units.
“I’d like to see that they were supported, that they were well equipped, and that the care that needs to be provided is provided.”
He said any move to send Australian health workers would depend on the assessment made by DFAT.
The top-level Ebola team will gather again in three weeks.