That being said, WHO Country Director Custodia Mandlhate said they were not advocating for the suspension of flights to and from West Africa as Africa’s, “porous borders,” did not limit the risk to air travel.
Due to these porous borders she did however encourage Kenya to liaise with its regional partners and come up with a consolidated plan to fight Ebola in the event it spreads to East Africa, “as you cannot simply fight it from Nairobi.”
A suggestion Macharia said they had taken into consideration. “We are currently exploring the possibility of holding an East African Community and Ethiopia meeting to develop a common approach,” he said as Mandlhate added that members of the South African Development Community had already held such a meeting.
Macharia added that although health was now a devolved government function, they were working with county governments to resolve the health workers pay crisis especially at the points of entry of Western Kenya and the coast as Kenya goes on high alert.
Border Control, Mandlhate emphasised, is critical as even the much touted ZMapp is not only unlicensed but in short supply.
So far over a thousand people have died from the Ebola virus in West Africa with the WHO defining it as a, “public health emergency of international concern,” in what is the worst outbreak since its discovery in 1976.
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