By Hadra Ahmed
Addis Ababa, Oct 17 (IANS): In a bid to fight the rapid spread of the Ebola virus disease, the African Union Support to Ebola Outbreak in West Africa (ASEOWA), a team formed for emergency response on Ebola that is under the African Union Commission (AUC) Social Affairs, has urged the Indian government to lend support with medical human resources.

The Indian government has had disasters, including natural and human made in many aspects and is very good at emergency preparedness and emergency response, hence, working with them in that aspect could really be supportive to tackle the issues, according to Mustapha Sidiki Kaloko, the commissioner for social affairs at the AUC.

"India has a lot of medical doctors and trained personnel which the government deploys in various cases like this. So they could send a few for us as we are having a shortage in that regard," Kaloko told IANS.

Currently, the Commission is facing challenges with fighting the Ebola epidemic in terms of infrastructure, treatment centres, hospitals and others in almost all the three West African countries affected by the diesase. However, the international community after a meeting in the UN has committed itself in those countries.

For instance, US will lead the efforts to create all the necessary infrastructure in Liberia, Briatin will do the same in Sierra Leone, and France in Guinea , according to Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, chairperson of the AUC.

"Not many countries have pledged on human resources and yet if the infrastructure is built it will need human resources and health workers to work in those hospitals and treatment centres and that is why we are urging not only our member countries but also the international community to deploy volunteers and medical team," Zuma told IANS.

The ASEOWA has sent 100 volunteers who will return back in a week. After that, it will need to send 100 more volunteers for another deployment. Over the next six weeks, it is looking at at least 500 medical personnel to be deployed.

"Our challenge is medical human resources and India is exemplary in terms of tackling disasters and we believe that is something we should all be looking at", Kaloko said.

"I think international solidarity means that they must work with us and the sensible thing to for every country is to be ready and find ways to contain the epidemic. Who knows where it is going to be next?"

In addition to the human resources, the AUC has task of collecting around $35 million and so far $18 million have been collected from the US, Britain , China, Norway and other partners. The time frame is for six months starting from August.

India, as part of the global efforts to combat the Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the West Africa region, had earlier pledged $500,000 to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and medical supplies worth $50,000 each to Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, where the Ebola outbreak has caused untold misery among the people.

Additionally, Sep 25, the Indian government decided to contribute $10 million to the newly set up United Nations Trust Fund for Ebola and a further assistance of $2 million in the form of supply of protective gear to personnel deployed in the region.

India's assistance to the efforts both regional and global now stands at about $13 million.

According to the AU, officials are now putting together a team to go to Guinea in the coming weeks on rotating basis with the hope of "breaking the cycle of the outbreak in about six months.

The epidemic, which has plagued West Africa since last March, especially Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, has already caused 4,493 deaths and infected 8,997 people, according to latest data from the World Health Organisation.