Nairobi, Sep 15 (IANS): African governments are due to meet in Nairobi from Tuesday for a regional conference on Ebola virus disease preparedness, Kenya's health ministry said Monday.
The Sep 16-17 regional conference will be attended by ministers in charge of transport, health, immigration and East Africa Community (EAC) affairs from Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), South Sudan and Ethiopia.
"The objective of the meeting is to craft a united, comprehensive and collective response to the Ebola outbreak that has so far affected a number of countries in West Africa," the ministry said in a statement.
Officials from the health ministry said Kenya would also be offering its regionally advanced diagnostic services to further consolidate the Ebola preparedness effort, Xinhua reported.
The conference comes amid an outbreak of the Ebola virus disease in DRC, and the region's interconnectedness has made a joint regional effort critical.
The meeting, which will also be attended by delegations from Inter Governmental Authority Development (IGAD), World Health Organisation (WHO) and African Union (AU), is a follow-up of another meeting held Sep 8 in Addis Ababa under the auspices of the AU.
"Owing to the virulent nature of this virus and its great capacity to impact negatively on other sectors it is important that EAC (East African Community) countries form a common strategy to fight the threat of the disease," the ministry said in the statement.
Nicholas Muraguri, director of medical services with Kenya's health ministry, said Kenya had heightened its surveillance of both bus passengers and, in particular, truck drivers at all entry points.
In March, Guinea's health ministry confirmed an outbreak of Ebola virus disease. This outbreak quickly spread initially to neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone. Later, the outbreak spread to Nigeria and Senegal. Another independent outbreak was confirmed in DRC Aug 20.
The meeting comes after Kenyans have expressed fears that health authorities are not thoroughly screening visitors from countries affected by Ebola.
The ministry said the Kenyan government has been closely monitoring the evolution of this outbreak in West Africa and assessing the risk to the country.
The latest toll from Ebola outbreak released Friday by the World Health Organisation indicated that over 2,400 people had died out of 4,784 confirmed cases.