B4-0793, 0798 and 0802/95

Resolution on the outbreak of the Ebola virus in Zaire

The European Parliament,

A. whereas the outbreak of the Ebola virus in Zaire has already resulted in the death of more than fifty people and the possible infection of many others who have fled to villages near the affected area,

B. aware that conditions in hospitals in Zaire, the lack of medical supplies and the low standards of discipline in Zaire's public services make the treatment of the victims and the prevention of the spread of the disease very difficult,

C. expressing its grave concern at the presence of some 2.2 million displaced persons in refugee camps in Zaire and neighbouring countries where the sanitary conditions are such as to make them particularly prone to epidemics,

D. whereas nineteen years ago similar outbreaks of Ebola killed more than 400 people in Zaire and neighbouring Sudan,

E. noting that the response to emergency epidemics is piecemeal and that there are at present no official procedures to determine which international organizations should assume prime responsibility, in political, technical and financial terms, for the crises resulting from the epidemics,

F. regretting that no effective coordinated transnational monitoring and control system has been organized; whereas fewer and fewer people are specializing in virology and epidemiology in the medical faculties of the countries of the Union,

G. noting the speed with which European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) made available a sum of ECU 250 000, thanks to which a team of doctors from Médecins Sans Frontières and 4.5 tonnes of medical equipment have already been despatched to the crisis area,

The European Parliament,

1. Expresses its deep concern about the outbreak of the Ebola virus in Zaire and the threat of a wider contamination of the population;

2. Recognizes that two of central Africa's three Ebola outbreaks have originated in hospitals, which underlines the urgent need for strict infection-control measures;

3. Calls on the Commission and the Council to appeal, as a matter of the utmost urgency, to the Executive Board of the World Health Organization to set in motion the procedure in Article 28 of its Constitution which enables WHO to take appropriate emergency measures, subject to its financial resources, to cope with incidents requiring immediate action;

4. Calls on the Commission and the Council to recommend to the Executive Board of WHO that it convene as soon as possible, pursuant to Article 13 of its Constitution, its Extraordinary General Assembly in order to provide all member countries with the fullest information on the real possibility of a pandemic;

5. Calls on the Commission and the Council to make representations to the authorities of the UN to extend the latter's AIDS programme to include all emergent viruses and to set up within this programme a unified crisis unit coordinated by WHO and under the direct responsibility of the Secretary- General of the UN;

6. Calls on the Commission and the Council to recommend to WHO closer collaboration between the latter and the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, a research and prevention organization which has enormous experience and expertise in the field of lethal viruses;

7. Calls on the Commission to launch a programme on pandemics with effect from the next financial year;

8. Insists on the need for all tourists and other visitors to Zaire to be warned of the health hazards in visiting that country;

9. Calls on all the Member States of the Union to institute forthwith coordinated and stringent health control procedures at all ports and airports in the Member States of the Union;

10. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the Government of Zaire and the WHO.