Not enough beds for Ebola patients

"There were a lot of meetings and sessions on a European level, on an international level and with the governments of countries affected by Ebola," said Phillipe Maughan from the EU's aid organization ECHO upon his return from a short roundtrip through Liberia and Sierra Leone. "What's lacking are people who work on the frontlines in the fight against Ebola."

Joanne Liu, head of the international aid organization Doctors Without Borders' chose even more drastic words in a hearing at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva.

"The world is losing the battle to contain it. Leaders are failing to come to grip with this transnational threat. In West Africa, cases and deaths continue to surge; riots are breaking out; isolation centers are overwhelmed," she said.

Liu's organization of doctors is treating roughly two thirds of all Ebola patients in West Africa. Doctors Without Borders' receive some of their funds from the EU Commission in Brussels.

"There are no medical batallions"

But the EU Commission and the non-governmental organization agree that a lack of financial resources is not the problem. The biggest challenge is the lack of trained personnel.

"Medecins sans frontieres has been ringing alarm bells for months, but the response has been too late, too little," Liu criticized at the WHO meeting.

EU coordinator Maughan admitted in an interview with DW: "I think the international response was probably slow." But he added that there are no emergency crews readily available anywhere in Europe, nor elsewhere. "There are not ready-made medical battalions available. These things have to be organized; the logistics has to be organized; volunteers have to be found; and in the case of Ebola that's not easy because it is clearly a very dangerous disease," said Maughan.

He went on to stress that the international community was in the process of stepping up aid contributions. The expert estimates that it might take until the end of this year, and possibly until the middle of next, before the numbers of new Ebola infections will considerably go down. Maughan expects a further 20,000 new infections at least. Currently, some 5,900 people have been infected.

Number of infected will rise further

"The problem is that the crisis is continuing to explode exponentially. A linear intensification of efforts will not suffice in this sense; especially as far as numbers of beds in Ebola treatment centers are concerned," was Marcus Cornaro's comment, deputy director general of the EU's development aid agency (EuropeAid). He also traveled to Liberia and Sierra Leone recently to get a picture of the situation on the ground. The United States and Germany have pledged to send soldiers who will set up much needed treatment centers. But they will not run them. It takes medically trained personnel to do that. The aid organizations therefore depend on local medical staff, drivers, transport workers and undertakers.

But recruiting such personnel is very difficult because locals have seen that aid workers and doctors can also die of Ebola, said Sierra Leone's ambassador to Brussels, Ibrahim Soire, on Tuesday at a European Parliament hearing.

"The nature of the virus is such that it has claimed the lives of people trained to deliver health care, and to date we have lost over 34 of our courageous medical personnel in the struggle, including four medical doctors. This has contributed to the spread of fear, which has created further difficulties in our response to non-Ebola related diseases, as most private clinics and hospitals have either scaled back operations or shut down completely," was how Ibrahim Soire described the situation.

More discipline to curb the disease

Massive external support will not suffice to stop the chain of infections, Cornaro from the EU Commission said. He added that key factors are awareness with the local population and their active collaboration. New infections can be prevented with drastic precautionary measures, he said, because the Ebola virus is not transmitted via the air, but via body fluids.

"One element which is absolutely vital is the individual responsibility of families, of representatives of traditional structures and churches and of local authorities," he said. "They need to understand that this is not an evil that is somehow being introduced from outside. With the necessary degree of discipline and hygiene as well as protective clothing worn by those who look after the patients it is possible to do."

Curfews, border closures or a disruption of flight connections would be utterly exaggerated measures to take, according to Cornaro. Hand disinfection, taking the temperature and proper burials of the highly infectious dead are much more effective. In addition, there had to be absolute certainty about who was in touch with the infected people.

Ebola can lead to further crises

Speaking to DW, the deputy director general of the EU Commission refuted claims made by the aid organization Doctors Without Borders, saying the issue at stake was not bureaucrats sitting on their checks doing nothing.

"Member states have given us good feedback. Of course, here at the EU Commission we always hope that more can be mobilized. But I am confident that that will come, in the form of either medical personnel, logistics, or equipment," said Cornaro.

Britain, France and Germany have already made pledges of support, and they now have to deliver, he added. The EU Commission has 150 million euros ($192 million) at its disposal. Some 100 million euros will directly go into the budgets of the concerned states.

Cornaro stressed that the West African states now had to get their health systems up and running again with the help of the EU, and organize food transport. Both EU representatives, Cornaro as well as Maughan, warned of terrible shortfalls in food supply in case of insufficient harvest this year. The economy has been slumping in West Africa. Even if Ebola itself can be contained, the crises ensuing from fighting the disease will have long-lasting effects, the experts are convinced. The EU is already planning to step up development aid for the region over the next few years.