CASTRIES, St Lucia (CMC) — The director of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) Dr Carissa Etienne is urging member countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) to remain vigilant against the potential threat of the Ebola virus that has killed thousands of people in Africa.

“It is an epidemic and PAHO has seen an exponential increase of cases in West Africa,” said Dr Etienne, adding that the epidemic has been declared a humanitarian crisis by the United Nations.

“It has overwhelmed totally the ability of the health services to respond to the epidemic and it going to take a huge effort to be able to contain and certainly to stop the transmission of this epidemic,” said, Dr Etienne, who admitted that while the risk may be low in this part of the world, there is always a risk that a case would be introduced locally.

She said that PAHO and the Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) have been engaging in works to ensure that member states have the capacity to deal with any case of Ebola.

“We are working to ensure that the member states have the capacity to identify the first case immediately and to increase surveillance at our ports of entry,” she said, adding that in any event the region will move to support whatever country is involved and PAHO will draw on its resources to render assistance.

Dr Etienne, who ended a brief visit to St Lucia, said that the Chikungunya virus which is spread mainly by the aedes aegypti mosquito is not so much a concern as the Ebola virus.

She said while the virus causes a lot of pain, weakness and put a strain on the health system, a majority of these cases recover from the illness.

“The first line of action into eradicating the issue would be to reduce the breeding sites and the householder must be at the forefront of the fight,” she said, urging people to pay closer attention to their surroundings, such as septic tank covers, plant pots, drink bottles, and any container that may house water in and around their homes.

The PAHO director said while the Ministry of Health will play its part in the fogging of communities, greater involvement is needed from the general public to ensure that breeding sites are destroyed.

“We are also advocating for the use of nets of those that are infected,” she added.