Canadian Health Minister Rona Ambrose and chief public health officer Dr. Gregory Taylor will comment today on developments in the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
Ambrose will speak from Calgary, while Taylor will be making comments in Toronto.
CBC will stream the event live starting at 10 a.m. ET Monday.
Their comments will come after the World Health organization called the outbreak "the most severe, acute health emergency seen in modern times." The WHO also said economic disruptions can be curbed if people are adequately informed to prevent irrational moves to dodge infection.
WHO director general Margaret Chan, citing World Bank figures, said 90 per cent of economic costs of any outbreak "come from irrational and disorganized efforts of the public to avoid infection."
Staffers of the global health organization "are very well aware that fear of infection has spread around the world much faster than the virus," Chan said in a statement read out to a regional health conference in Manila.
"We are seeing, right now, how this virus can disrupt economies and societies around the world," she said, but added that adequately educating the public was a "good defence strategy" and would allow governments to prevent economic disruptions.
The Ebola epidemic has killed more than 4,000 people, mostly in the West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, according to WHO figures published last week.
Chan did not specify those steps, but praised the Philippines for holding an anti-Ebola summit last week that was joined by government health officials and private-sector representatives, warning that the Southeast Asian country was vulnerable due to the large number of Filipinos working abroad.
While bracing for Ebola, health officials should continue to focus on major health threats, including non-communicable diseases, she said.
Philippine Health Secretary Enrique Ona said authorities will ask more than 1,700 Filipinos working in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea to observe themselves for at least 21 days for Ebola symptoms in those countries first if they plan to return home.
The World Health Organization is 'very well aware that fear of infection has spread around the world much faster than the virus,' WHO Director General Margaret Chan said in a statement read out to a regional health conference in Manila on Monday. (2Tango/Reuters)
Once home, they should observe themselves for another 21 days and then report the result of their self-screening to health authorities to be doubly sure they have not been infected, he said, adding that hospitals which would deal with any Ebola patients have already been identified in the Philippines.
Last month, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged leaders in the most affected countries to establish special centers that aim to isolate infected people from non-infected relatives in an effort to stem the spread of Ebola.
Ban has also appealed for airlines and shipping companies not to suspend services to countries affected by Ebola. Doing so, he said, hinders delivery of humanitarian and medical assistance.
In other news Monday, some nurses are turning up for work at hospitals in Liberia despite calls for a strike to demand better hazard pay amid an Ebola epidemic.
A strike could severely hamper Liberia's ability to respond to the largest ever Ebola outbreak.
Liberia has the highest death toll of the countries affected by Ebola.
Ebola has hit health-care workers especially hard, infecting about 400, nearly half of those in Liberia. Members of the National Health Workers Association of Liberia are demanding higher monthly hazard pay.
Dr. Gobee Logan, a doctor at a government hospital, said some nurses were at work Monday.
The association boasts more than 10,000 members, though the Health Ministry says only about 1,000 of those are employed at sites receiving Ebola patients.
A meeting to resolve their grievances on Oct. 10 ended in a deadlock with the government refusing the meet their demands, said George Williams, secretary general of the National Health Workers Association.
He, however, acknowledged that the strike would undermine the gains being made in the fight against Ebola in Liberia, but said they were confident the public would understand the reason behind their action.]
"The problem is the government. The public should get angry with the government, not with us," Williams said
"The public is aware that health workers are dying because they are not protected. Nobody is supposed to die while protecting lives, we have been calling on the government to give us protective gear but they are not doing so," he said.
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