European, Asian nations on alert; epidemic said to be out of control

Fears that the African Ebola outbreak could spread to other continents grew on Wednesday with European and Asian countries on alert and a leading medical charity warning the epidemic was out of control.

Doctors Without Borders said the crisis gripping Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone would only get worse and warned there was no overarching strategy to handle the world's worst outbreak of the disease.

US Christian charity Samaritan's Purse was temporarily withdrawing its non-essential staff from Liberia, it said, citing regional "instability and ongoing security issues".

Hong Kong announced quarantine measures for suspected cases, although one woman arriving from Africa with possible symptoms tested negative, while the EU said it was ready to deal with the threat.

The International Civil Aviation Organization has held talks with global health officials on potential measures to halt the spread of the disease.

In Britain, where one person has tested negative for the disease, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said it was regarded as "a very serious threat".

An emergency meeting had decided that the best approach was to provide "additional resources to deal with the disease at source" in West Africa, he added.

Ebola can kill victims within days, causing severe fever and muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea and, in some cases, organ failure and unstoppable bleeding.

Since March, there have been 1,201 cases of Ebola and 672 deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization.

The US Peace Corps announced on Wednesday it was pulling hundreds of volunteers from the three countries.

There are currently 102 Peace Corps volunteers in Guinea working on agriculture, education and health, 108 in Liberia and 130 in Sierra Leone.

EU 'equipped and ready'

The European Union is equipped and ready to treat victims should the deadly virus be found in its 28 member states, an EU source said in Brussels.

"We cannot rule out the possibility that an infected person arrives in Europe but the EU has the means to track and contain any outbreak rapidly," the source said.

The isolation and negative testing of a suspected case in Valencia in Spain showed that the "system worked", the source added.

"The level of contamination on the ground is extremely worrying and we need to scale up our action before many more lives are lost," EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva said.

In Hong Kong, a densely populated city previously scarred by disease outbreaks such as the 2003 SARS epidemic, health officials confirmed they would quarantine as a precautionary measure any visitors from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia who showed fever symptoms.

One woman arriving in the southern Chinese city from Africa, who showed symptoms including fever and vomiting, has tested negative for Ebola.

Australia said on Thursday it was well prepared in the unlikely event that the Ebola virus reached its shores. Australia has already warned against travel to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

A volunteer hands out pamphlets to educate the public on the Ebola virus in Monrovia, Liberia. An isolation unit for Ebola victims in the city is overrun with cases and health workers are being forced to treat up to 20 new patients in their homes. Reuters

(China Daily 08/01/2014 page12)