OECS director says one case of Ebola in the Caribbean can cripple tourism

Dr. Jules said the OECS must take protective measures against Ebola
Dr. Jules said the OECS must take protective measures against Ebola

As the Ebola virus rages through several countries in Africa, Director of Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Dr. Didacus Jules has said that all OECS members must continue planning and take protective measures to ensure the safety of its citizens and the continuity of commerce.

“All we need is one case of Ebola anywhere in the Caribbean and we will realise that our tourism would be dead, because if it is in the international news that Ebola is in the Caribbean, tourists will stop coming,” Dr. Jules opined.

He said this is very critical, especially since tourism is important to all OECS countries.

Meanwhile, Dr. Jules stated that while the World Health Organisation (WHO) has proposed that countries should not impose a ban on travel from the Ebola-affected countries, he said OECS countries have to modify those arrangements.

“While it is easy for the bigger countries to say no travel restrictions, we are not in the position to do that. We have to protect our borders and our borders are very porous,” he explained.

According to him, other OECS countries are now implementing the same measures taken by St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines to restrict travel from Ebola-affected countries.

Further, Dr. Jules believes that Ebola is not as major a threat as US media makes it appear. However, the OECS director asserted that it is a situation that countries cannot afford to ignore. Dr. Jules said a number of issues relating to a possible threat of the Ebola virus reaching the Caribbean were discussed in the recent OECS Ministers of Health meeting.

Some of these same discussions continued at the recently concluded ALBA meeting in Havana, Cuba. As a result of the ALBA meeting, Cuba has decided to assist the OECS and the rest of the Caribbean by providing a rapid response team, with highly specialised medical personnel.

These Cuban medical experts have already experienced the crisis situation in Africa and will help the OECS to guide and assist other countries in its planning. “Over 400 doctors and medical specialists are currently in the heart of the Ebola crisis in Africa. So the Cubans have tremendous expertise in dealing with that and they have offered all the assistance,” he added.

The OECS Drug Procurement Unit will now be expanded to source the best suits and protective material and gears, at the best prices.

“The OECS is in an ideal position to do this because we supply medicine to countries at 30 per cent cheaper than they would have sourced on the open market,” Dr. Jules told the local media.

The OECS director said other development partners, including the British High Commission, have been alerted on the organisation’s plans and preparations for the Ebola virus. The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has also been advised on these plans and have already signaled its readiness to receive requests from Caribbean countries that may need financing to assist in its national plan against the Ebola virus.

While each country is preparing their own national plan, the OECS will converge those plans into a region-wide plan.

The reason for this, he said is, “because if it happens in one country we all are at threat.” One major priority of the OECS plan is also to train health personnel to ensure their own safety. The OECS also plans to engage stakeholders on the Ebola virus. Nurses associations, hoteliers, employers’ schools and other groupings are included.

The OECS director said the plan is to promote greater awareness of the Ebola virus through these groupings and try to address the “major battle against fear”.

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19 Comments

  1. October 25, 2014

    it is a desease to be fearful of.

  2. The Facts
    October 24, 2014

    Dr, Jules your entire article is informative and well-written. I cannot add anything, of my words to it, for a change. :lol:

    These are the steps the US is taking.

    By Canadian Press – The Associated Press –

    ATLANTA – All travelers who come into the U.S. from three Ebola-stricken West African nations will now be monitored for three weeks, the latest step by federal officials to keep the disease from spreading into the country.
    Starting on Monday, anyone traveling from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone will have to report in with health officials daily and take their temperature twice a day.
    The measure applies not only to visitors from those countries but also returning American aid workers, federal health employees and journalists.
    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the new step Wednesday.

  3. Green Grove
    October 24, 2014

    something is wrong in the OCES Dr.Jules..

    Your Caribbean island of Dominica which speaks english not the Dominican Rep is Ebola Ready, according to their Minister of Health in Dominica

    So if Dominica is Ebola ready why but that fear panic out there, wonder if the OECS is for real or a bunch of money grabbers as policy makers..

  4. October 24, 2014

    Trubble Sum October 24, 2014 Your comment is awaiting moderation
    Ebola, as serious as it is, will not kill Caribbean tourism as stated by Dr. Jules. Especially in Dominica, where we have a divine and ordained Leader hand-picked by God. When one compares the unflinching love, compassion and charity of Dr. Roosevelt Skerrit it brings only one thought in mind…JESUS!
    With this great and inspiring Leader at the helm nothing can touch us. Dominicans have no fear we are well protected by the hands of God!

  5. October 24, 2014

    Ebola, as serious as it is, will not kill Caribbean tourism as stated by Dr. Jules. Especially in Dominica, where we have a divine and ordained Leader hand-picked by God. When one compares the unflinching love, compassion and charity of Dr. Roosevelt Skerrit it brings only one thought in mind…JESUS!
    With this great and inspiring Leader at the helm nothing can’t touch us. Dominicans have no fear we are well protected by the hands of God!

  6. shaka zulu
    October 24, 2014

    With the volume of Cuban health personnel heading there it will surely make its way back to the Caribbean. According to the minister of health from Dominica we are ready to handle so have no fear. I assume that government already purchased biohaz protective suits, a response team has already been trained to use the suits and administer care, isolation units have already been designated and equipped in case needed and simulations have been conducted with first responders and healthcare workers. Dominica is ready.
    Fear is only spread through ignorance. Ignorance is also the reason Ebola spread like crazy during this outbreak in Africa. We just love to much drama and end of world. Ebola will come and go like all contagious diseases before. We will learn, we will conquer, we will survive and be prepared for the next one.

  7. Not too wise
    October 24, 2014

    It is unfortunate and distressing to see people in leadership positions express such woefully misguided views. While the entry of Ebola to any OECS country poses a serious threat to public health, such an event would not be cause to throw up our hands in surrender and declare the tourism industry dead. Instead, we should be working proactively now to ensure that any such entry of Ebola can be effectively contained. Various countries in east Africa have demonstrated over the past 30 years how this can be done, and Nigeria has more recently demonstrated it yet again. While high-tech medicine beyond our means may be required to treat those who have an advanced stage of the disease, relatively simple public health measures are effective to isolate infected patients and stop the spread of the virus. Travel bans are counterproductive.

    • Jayson
      October 24, 2014

      Prospective tourists could give a hell weather a ‘third-world’ country reports that they have the virus contained or not.

      Once it’s confirmed that there is one case in the Caribbean, just like any normal thinking human being, they’ll most likely book their holiday elsewhere.

      In their mind, there’s absolutely no point in potentially exposing their wife and children to the world’s deadliest virus just to get a glimpse of ‘Trafalgar Falls’.

    • Anonymous
      October 24, 2014

      Dno Revolution.
      it is good we can outsource expertise.

    • The Mouth
      October 24, 2014

      I agree wholeheartedly. Dr Jules ought to take a course in risk communications, because if I was non-the-wiser, I would be in sheer panic at his statement.

      The travel bans introduced have little value from a public health perspective, as they represent nothing more than a magicians ‘smoke and mirrors’ trick, to divert public attention from the lack of preparation that currently exists.

      Figures published by the UNWTO shows that between 2008 and 2012, only 217 people visited the Caribbean from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea (UNWTO Tourism Market Trends – Americas). Whilst I agree it only takes one person to be infected with Ebola to cause a major problem, we have to place this in context and measure the risk. 217 people is less than one of the planes that arrives into the USA every day.

      The Caribbean is at far greater risk from travellers from the USA or Europe, especially those with secondary infections. The closest the region has come to exposure, was the laboratory Technician who treated Mr Duncan and then travelled to the region on a cruise ship. The current bans by St Vincent and Saint Lucia would not have stopped exposure had he/she been infected with Ebola.

      Dr Jules also appears to contradict himself by lauding the virtues of Cuba for their experience with dealing with Ebola. We know health practitioners are at greatest risk of exporting Ebola. If the OECS wishes to get current expert advice, I suggest they speak with the Nigerians. Yes, the same Nigerians who are restricted from travelling to Saint Lucia.

  8. carib diva
    October 24, 2014

    Ebola is a serious concern it is…….so was HIV/AIDS when it first appeared on the scene. Parents were putting their own family members on the streets, afraid to hug be next to a person with aids etc. Ebola is starting to cause a panic of sorts and so we have to be on our guard and be careful out there

    • DonK
      October 24, 2014

      Chikungunya a virus can be spread via mosquito through infected persons’ blood?

      HIV is a virus too right? The same mosquitoe bites people infected with AIDS? And they carry the same blood with the virus intact?

      Yes or No?

      Somebody’s not telling the truth somewhere…

    • The Facts
      October 24, 2014

      Ebola is worst. Even the clothes and dead bodies are affected. You only have to be near an infected person and you can contract it. This is serious. The nurses who took care of the man who died from Ebola in Texas contracted it although they were properly clad.
      How can you compare it to HIV-AIDS? We are aware or most of us, of the various ways how HIV-AIDS could be contracted. It is still around and may be around until the end of the world. These diseases are plagues.

  9. Anon Again
    October 24, 2014

    I continue to be disturbed by the fear and panic that people like Dr. Jules are (inadvertently, I hope) pedling. Surely, Dr. Jules must know that banning people from entering legally does not protect us from ebola. He has said himself that our borders are porous. Therefore, if you prevent people from coming in legally, then the risk of them coming in illegally through these same porous borders, will increase. And when they come in illegally, we don’t know who they are, we can’t monitor them, we don’t know what risks they pose.
    Secondly, Dr. Jules must know that ebola knows no race or nationality. This means that a Dominican can travel to the US, be unfortunate enough to be in contact with someone who is sick with the virus, contract it, come home and then get sick several days later. What, then, do we do, should this situation occur? So I ask again, should we not be spending time ensuring that in the unlikely event we get a case we are prepared to handle it? Shouldn’t we be demonstrating to the people of Dominica and the OECS how prepared we are?

    Let’s examine the situation with Nigeria (yes, the same Nigeria whose nationals we banned from playing in the World Creole Music Festival). The World Health Organization has now declared Nigeria ebola-free. Nigeria, which is about 1200 miles from Liberia, made it clear from the start that it would not ban travel from any of the worst affected areas. There’s a whole lot of traffic among these countries, yet they imposed no travel ban. Here’s what the Nigerian health minister said, as reported in Time: Nigeria has not closed its borders to travelers from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, saying the move would be counterproductive. “Closing borders tends to reinforce panic and the notion of helplessness,” Shuaib said. “When you close the legal points of entry, then you potentially drive people to use illegal passages, thus compounding the problem.” Shuaib said that if public health strategies are implemented, outbreaks can be controlled, and that closing borders would only stifle commercial activities in the countries whose economies are already struggling due to Ebola.

    As I’ve said before, there’s also very little to no traffic between the worst hit countries and Dominica. So who are we really banning? We are at great risk from US or Canadian or British citizens. We are even at greater risk from our own nationals. In any case, with Dominican passports on sale at the open market, what guarantees do we have that people from these countries won’t enter our country on a Dominican passport? What then, do we do?

    In times like these we need strong leadership like what the New York major displayed last night and today, like what Obama has displayed. We need to calm fears and stop the panic, not create hysteria. Unfortunately, this is what people like Dr. Jules is doing

    • Anon Again
      October 24, 2014

      The last sentence should read, unfortunately, this is what people like Dr. Jules are doing

    • The Facts
      October 24, 2014

      Who knows if the Nigerian authorities are down-playing the Ebola crisis in their nation?

  10. Citizen
    October 24, 2014

    ” Dr Jules believes that Ebola is not as major a threat as US media makes it appear”. This man is a Dr.Idiot.. :mrgreen:

    • The Facts
      October 24, 2014

      The US is a huge country. The Media always blows everything out of proportion. They can take a small story and make it a bigger one than it is. They always do that and to excite listeners and readers but the TV and radio broadcasts most of all. The manner in which they broadcast the news they could really place fear in the listeners and make them think it is the end of the world.
      The US and Canadian Media of all are famous for that. This is what Dr. Jules means. Why not read between the lines and comprehend what he stated? Who is the idiot? :twisted: :mrgreen:

    • Too Hard Too Long
      October 27, 2014

      I agree with him. The US is exploiting the ebola crisis for political. Their elections are coming up in November. They are already exploiting it also for financial gain. Sales of protective kits are soaring right now.

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