Special Symposium On Ebola: The Affected Countries Must Not Be Isolated

What is the local situation, what is needed most and how can help be coordinated in affected countries? International experts like the German Ebola Commissioner Walter Lindner used the special symposium “Ebola: A Wake-up Call for Global Health” to call for a coordinated approach in fighting the epidemic; for a sustainable infrastructure; and for support of the international humanitarian respondents.

Addressing the several hundred participants at the World Health Summit, he emphasized that the affected countries must not be isolated.

Ethel Davis, Ambassador of the Republic of Liberia in Germany, put special emphasis on the social and economic consequences of the crisis, whereas Florian Westphal, Managing Director of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) stated: “The time for talking or theorizing is over.”

The general consensus was that we have to learn our lessons from the current crisis.

The World Health Summit and its academic network, the M8 Alliance, released the call to action “Berlin Declaration on Ebola” available online:

http://phplist.charite.de/lists/lt.php?id=Z0gKD0QIAVVFAlpRAQ

Another central topic of the day was the effect of climate change on health. 1,8 billion people are exposed to health threats due to contaminated water and the exposure is expected to rise because of floodings and low rain. This was one of the main messages in the keynote of Dr. Uschi Eid, Chair of the United Nations Secretary General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation.

The sixth World Health Summit is held from October 19 - 22, 2014, at the Federal Foreign Office Berlin.

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