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Ebola expert says China at risk, seeks Japan aid

TOKYO — A scientist who helped to discover the Ebola virus says he is concerned that the disease could spread to China given the large numbers of Chinese workers travelling to and from Africa.

A monitor displays the body temperature of a passenger arriving at the Beijing Capital International Airport on Oct 30, 2014. Beijing has suggested to people returning from regions affected by Ebola to quarantine themselves at home for 21 days. Photo: Reuters

A monitor displays the body temperature of a passenger arriving at the Beijing Capital International Airport on Oct 30, 2014. Beijing has suggested to people returning from regions affected by Ebola to quarantine themselves at home for 21 days. Photo: Reuters

TOKYO — A scientist who helped to discover the Ebola virus says he is concerned that the disease could spread to China given the large numbers of Chinese workers travelling to and from Africa.

Prof Peter Piot, who is director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said today (Oct 30) it’s not “rocket science” that with many exchanges between the two regions the disease could spread.

“The concern I have is that I don’t think you can really stop people from travelling. These patients will show up in any country in the world, but China is quite vulnerable,” Prof Piot said.

“The issue is: What is the quality, the standard of infection control? In public hospitals in China, the ones that I’ve visited, the level of infection control is very poor,” he said.

Prof Piot said China’s controls for infectious diseases have improved and authorities have become more open about public health risks since severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, broke out in southern China in 2002. SARS infected about 8,000 people worldwide, killing nearly 800.

Conversely, Japan has disease controls and hygiene that are up to international standards, but it needs to do more to help combat what has become not just an epidemic but a humanitarian crisis, said Prof Piot, a board member of the Global Health Innovative Technology fund, a collaboration funded by the Japanese government, Japanese pharmaceutical companies and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The fund supports research into treatments for malaria, tuberculosis, dengue and other so-called neglected tropical diseases. Prof Piot said that despite the urgency of the crisis, it was crucial that funds going to those efforts not be diverted to work on Ebola.

Treating the Ebola outbreaks as a humanitarian crisis would help overcome worries over budgetary issues, he said.

Japan has pledged US$40 million (S$51 million) so far to help combat the Ebola outbreak, but Prof Piot said more is needed.

“I appeal to Japan to contribute from their very rich tradition, in all senses of the word of humanitarian assistance,” Prof Piot said.

“When there is a humanitarian crisis, there is always money, and rightly so,” he added. “Ebola is in that category.” AP

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