ECOWAS chairman convenes emergency forum on Ebola

To curtail the deadly Ebola Viral Disease (EVD) in the sub-region, a two day emergency meeting of health experts is scheduled to hold this week in Accra to strategise on measures to curb the scourge.

This is coming barely a week after the Government of Ghana issued a three month ban on all scheduled international conferences in the country in order to prevent the importation of the virus into the country.


The meeting of experts scheduled to hold on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, under the platform of African Health Organization is expected to adopt strategies for curbing the deadly disease. A meeting of Health Ministers in the sub-region is expected to hold on the same issue.

The Chairman of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and President of Ghana’s President, President John Mahama, who made the disclosure at the weekend, when the Executive Director of the UNAIDS, Michel Sidibe paid a courtesy call on him in his office at the Flagstaff House also condemned the recent ban placed on air travels to the affected countries.

Mahama while noting with dismay the apprehension the disease has evoked and the panic with which issues relating to Ebola were being addressed said that the ban on flights to affected countries was capable of exacerbating the crisis.

For instance, he observed that due to the restriction on movements into the Ebola affected countries humanitarian efforts have been impeded, stressing that it was extremely difficult for voluntary health professionals to go the affected countries to assist them.

Mahama also noted with concern that some of the measures taken by the affected countries were capable of aggravating the crisis, hence he called for a regional forum to adopt strategic measures to effectively address the Ebola challenge.

In his response, the UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibe commiserated with the affected countries, while pledging support to the region in its effort to tackle the epidemic.