Australian health minister defends Ebola ban

Australian Health Minister Peter Dutton has defended Australia's restriction on migration from Ebola-affected countries after the World Health Organization demanded justification for the move.

Last month, Australia became the first country to place restrictions on migration from West African nations with known cases of the deadly disease. Canada followed suit four days later.

Dutton has claimed West African language barriers and funeral rites make those travelers an unacceptable risk.

"We've been able to facilitate some of the humanitarian refugees and we've also at the same time taken what we believe to be in the best interests of our country," he said.

"I think that's sensible and I think particularly given language difficulties, particularly given funeral rituals and practices mean that people coming from West Africa in the three affected countries do pose a higher threat and a higher risk of contracting the disease and ultimately spreading it."

But the UN's health agency does not believe a ban affecting all residents is good procedure and recommends only exit screening for those leaving the worst-affected nations.

Isabelle Nuttall, director of WHO's alert and response department, said the UN agency had asked both Australia and Canada to justify the tough border measures, which she has described as "detrimental and ineffective".

"These are measures that go beyond the recommendations of the WHO's emergency committee," Nuttall said.

Dutton has repeatedly refused to send health workers to curtail the epidemic without the guarantee Australians could be adequately treated. On Wednesday, after receiving a guarantee from Britain, the government announced it will send an Australian workforce.

It will hire Canberra-based Aspen Medical to provide about 240 people - a mix of Australian, Sierra Leonean and international health workers - for a 100-bed medical facility being built by the British government in Sierra Leone.

"There is a 50 percent fatality rate for health workers, which is high, very high and it's a significant issue for us that we needed to take into consideration," Dutton said.

The managing director of Aspen Medical said he had already received 200 applications from Australian doctors, nurses, clinicians, environmental health workers and logisticians. Australians will make up no more than 20 percent of the staff of 240.

On Wednesday, China said it will send 1,000 medical workers to the region over the coming months.

Xinhua - AP

(China Daily 11/07/2014 page12)