Tonio Borg of Malta, the European Union's Health Commissioner, is spearheading the EU response to the Ebola outbreak. Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Tonio Borg of Malta, the European Union's Health Commissioner, is spearheading the EU response to the Ebola outbreak.
It's not just about Ebola.
That's the message from EU Health Commissioner Tonio Borg. He was in Washington last week to talk about Europe's response to the crisis at a meeting of the Global Health Security Agenda. The European Union is a key player in the global effort to stop the epidemic.
Goats and Soda sat down with Borg and learned that his focus is twofold: Stop the epidemic and repair the devastated healthcare systems of West Africa.
"I always speak of this weakest link even when I speak about health within the European Union," So if one member state has different standards than another, he notes, "We are now a union where there are no controls. We are only as strong as our weakest link." And a weak link can expose an entire continent or world to risks.
"We need global initiatives on antimicrobial resistance, global initiatives on epidemics, as if a virus would take heed of any frontiers or boundaries," Borg says. "So I think this is the new challenge for all health ministers around the globe."
Most of the EU's Ebola assistance a pledge of 180 million Euros or about $226 million is earmarked for improving the public health care systems in West Africa, Borg says. The money from the EU is separate from funding that's coming directly from EU member states, he says. France, for instance, is sending aid directly to Guinea, and Britain is setting up Ebola treatment units in Sierra Leone.
But Borg says what's needed in the longer term is investment in weak local health care systems "because this epidemic will come again, perhaps in another form. Our aim is not just to dish out the cash now but to provide a long-term partnership in this regard."
Borg, who is from Malta, says strengthening public health systems in the world's poorest countries benefits everyone: "We have a moral obligation towards developing countries whether in Europe or United States but, of course, my responsibility is also to protect our own citizens. But the two are not separate, watertight compartments. By containing the disease in these countries, we are also protecting ourselves. Self-interest should not be the prime mover of what we do. The prime mover should be health as a value in itself; we have this moral obligation towards developing countries. But this indirectly also helps our own situation and the health situation of our own citizens."
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Europe's 'Moral Obligation' Is To Repair West Africa's Health Care System