MORE than 50 doctors and nurses from 13 Caribbean countries are in St John’s, Antigua and Barbuda, this week to receive training on clinical management of Ebola in a workshop sponsored by the Pan American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO).

The three-day training, which began on Monday, is part of a series of PAHO/WHO actions intended to help countries strengthen their preparedness for potential imported cases of Ebola.

Workshop participants will learn about the history and epidemiology of Ebola virus disease and how to detect, isolate, and manage suspected cases. The training will also cover diagnosis and clinical management, use of personal protective equipment, organisation of specialised treatment units, and aspects of infection prevention and control.

Following the workshop, trainees are expected to train other health professionals in their home countries, with PAHO/WHO support. Some of the trainees will also participate in specialised international teams that could be mobilised by PAHO/WHO to provide support in clinical response and outbreak control to any country in the region that is affected by Ebola.

Workshop facilitators are all professionals with experience in management of Ebola and other infectious diseases. In addition to PAHO/WHO staff, they include experts from Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, and St Patrick Hospital in Missoula, Montana in the United States.

Trainees were selected by their countries according to their professional medical and teaching experience, work in a national hospital, and willingness to serve as trainers in their own countries and support PAHO/WHO missions to other countries of the region.

PAHO/WHO has undertaken a series of actions to help its member countries in Latin America and the Caribbean ensure they are able to detect, contain, and prevent local transmission of any imported case of Ebola. They are part of larger efforts by PAHO/WHO to help its member countries prevent and respond to public health risks that cross borders and threaten populations, within the framework of the International Health Regulations (IHR), an international legal instrument signed by WHO Member States.

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa was declared a public health emergency of international concern by WHO Director Margaret Chan on August 8, 2014. By yesterday, more than 17,000 cases and 6,000 deaths had been reported, mostly in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, according to WHO. In the Americas, only the United States has reported cases of Ebola, but the possibility of imported cases in other countries of the Americas cannot be discarded.

PAHO, founded in 1902, is the oldest international public health organisation in the world. It works with its member countries to improve the health and the quality of life of the people of the Americas. It also serves as the Regional Office for the Americas of WHO.