Monday, October 13, 2014

Israelis and Palestinians join forces to combat Ebola

Israeli and Palestinian officials met at the weekend to draw up an action plan to prevent the Ebola epidemic from spreading to the territories they control, the Israeli military said Sunday. - AFP/Yahoo

"During the meeting (on Saturday evening), updates were exchanged between the parties, and transfer of information was agreed upon by way of additional meetings to take place in order to further track the issue," said COGAT, the defence ministry unit responsible for Palestinian civilian coordination.

One proposal to combat the disease was for Israel to provide courses in advanced epidemiology for Palestinian and Jordanian medical staff, a health ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

Ebola has killed more than 4,000 people this year, nearly all of them in the West African countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

"There are contacts with the Israeli side regarding this within the context of WHO's instructions on fighting this virus, which is a global task," said Assad Ramlawi of the Palestinian health ministry.

"There are common crossings and we have contacts on this, nothing more or less," he told AFP.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a meeting Sunday with health, military, police, border crossings and other relevant officials over the epidemic.

Firestone Did What Governments Have Not: Stopped Ebola In Its Tracks - NPR