The World Health Organization has defined the West African ebola outbreak as a public health emergency. Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said an emergency response workforce will be working to be on guard against the disease.
The WHO has put countries into three categories. Taiwan is considered a normal country that does not need any bans on travel or trade. But Taiwan will provide accurate information for those traveling to the region and assist any who have been at risk at getting ebola to return to Taiwan.
The CDC says Taiwan nationals usually make 1200 visits a year to the four African countries affected by the ebola outbreak. The current outbreak of Ebola began in Guinea in March and has since spread to Sierra Leone and Liberia, with a suspected cluster in Nigeria. The disease has a death rate of about 50 percent and has so far killed at least 932 persons. WHO declared similar emergencies for the swine flu pandemic in 2009.
CDC Deputy Director Chou Chih-hao said they would work with the foreign ministry to coordinate any actions that need to be taken if a Taiwanese national were at risk of catching ebola.
“Since the affected West African nations are very far from Taiwan, we need to discuss this further with the foreign ministry,” Chou said. “We’d confirm that a Taiwanese national was at risk of contracting the disease, and what kind of specific action we would take to take them to a suitable place to receive treatment, whether that means quarantine or further treatment.”
The CDC received the latest WHO decisions via their International Health Regulations contact. Chou said this shows that channels of communication with the WHO are strong which is very helpful in enabling Taiwan to fight disease.