(Trinidad Express) Trinidad and Tobago will put US$100,000 into a fund which has been set up by Caricom to fight the Ebola virus in affected West African countries.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced this yesterday, following a special meeting of regional heads of State at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s.
The fund has been dubbed “Stop Ebola Here and There (SEHT)”, said Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne as he gave details of a ten-point plan to both fight the disease at the source and keep it out of the region.
Yesterday’s 17th Special Meeting of Caricom was called by Persad-Bissessar to discuss the Ebola virus, which has not had a case in the region, and chikungunya (ChikV), which is currently devastating working populations in 23 of the 24 member states of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (Carpha).
Browne, who expressed solidarity with the affected countries, said the meeting had admitted that the likelihood of Ebola penetrating the Caribbean was “low” due to the low level of incoming traffic from affected areas.
Nevertheless, there was support for efforts to strengthen entry control and health systems and the new plan will also urge the participation of airlines.
Persad-Bissessar said in the “unlikely” event of the incidence of Ebola in Trinidad and Tobago, systems will be in place to contain and prevent spread of the deadly virus.
She also announced the creation of a regional rapid response unit, “Carib React”, which will be one of the strategies to combat the disease that this country will support.
Stating that she was proud to have been made aware of a Trinidadian doctor working with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in West Africa to fight the disease, Persad-Bissessar said, “We must not allow fear to take hold and prevent us from coming together to help those countries that have been devastated by the disease.”
Responding to questions later on the call by some for Carnival 2015 to be cancelled due to the possibility of the introduction of Ebola into T&T, Persad-Bissessar said to make a decision on that now would be “premature”.
She said, however, that in spite of the low possibility of the disease appearing here, T&T must not be complacent.
Dr Denzil Douglas, St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister and Lead Head of Government for Human Resource Development, Health and HIV/AIDS, who had also called for the special meeting, said he believed yesterday’s meeting was successful and Caricom countries were able to assess their position at this time with respect to the two illnesses.
Douglas said the fight against the Ebola virus must take place at the source, but Caricom must at the same time be prepared to battle the disease on its own shores.
