The head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response has added to the international pressure on the Abbott Government to support sending specialised medical personnel to West Africa.
“What we need the most are foreign medical teams, trained personnel who cannot only work in Ebola treatment units, but who can manage them, the complex systems that need to be followed in a very strict way to ensure good infection control, treatment of the people.
We need them and we need them fast…”
ANTHONY BANBURY – 7:30, ABC – 28 OCTOBER 2014
His call follows last week’s Senate Estimates revelations the UK and US Governments made specific requests a month ago for Australia to send personnel to help fight the Ebola crisis.
Senate Estimates also exposed the Abbott Government’s uninterested, chaotic response to the Ebola crisis with the Chief Medical Officer, the head of the Health Department, the Defence Force, and the Immigration Minister all giving wildly different accounts.
Mr Banbury has endorsed Labor’s warning that the best way to protect Australia is to tackle the Ebola crisis at its source in West Africa.
“The most urgent priority, the thing we all need to focus on is ending the crisis, stopping Ebola.
Only by ending Ebola will the whole world be protected and not under threat.
The way to do that is to send people to West Africa fast.”
ANTHONY BANBURY – 7:30, ABC – 28 OCTOBER 2014