“EBOLA: IS LEBANON AT RISK?”

Under the patronage of the Minister of Health, Mr. Wael Abou Faour, represented by Dr. Ateka Berri, Head of Preventive Medicine at the Ministry of Health, the Lebanese German University_ LGU, in collaboration with MEFOSA, organized a workshop entitled “Ebola: Is Lebanon at risk?” at its campus in Sahel Alma on Tuesday 2 December, 2014.

Present at the workshop and the conference that followed were Monsignor Louis Boueri, representing Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi, Mr. Fadel Selim, Dr. Naji Marrouch, representing General Jean Kahwaji, and several highly ranked officers from the ISF as well as WHO representative in Lebanon, Dr. Elyssar Radi, LGU President, Dr. Faouzi Adaimi, and a host of doctors and professionals in the field.

The workshops discussed all measures undertaken to fight the disease and the involvement of public, national, and international institutions in the process of reducing risks by controlling all chances of transmission and dealing properly with dead patients.

Dr. Paul Makhlouf, Dean of the Faculty of Public Health at LGU, pointed out the importance of implementing preventive measures to face the disease and the risk facing Lebanon in view of the Lebanese expats who live on the African continent and the African labor hand that prevails in Lebanon. In turn, Dr. Pierre Khoury, Vice President for Development at LGU, spoke about the interest LGU has in raising awareness of food safety among the population through active participation in projects launched by various Lebanese ministries and the organization of conferences that deal with various health and safety topics.

Representing MEFOSA, Dr. Atef Idriss spoke about the need to raise public awareness especially with respect to agricultural products imported from Africa and the need to pass a law for food safety. Dr. Abdel Rahman Al Bizri stressed the spread of the disease in the African countries and the measures taken by the academic, medical, tourism, and health sectors to prevent and fight the disease.

Ms. Rebecca Abou Nader called the audience attention to the importance of informing the public about the disease and the basic preventive measures to be taken and confirmed that so far no Ebola cases have been reported in Lebanon.

Dr. Ateka Berri concluded with the recommendations that have been formulated in view of addressing them to the relevant ministries. These ranged from the particular preventive measures to the actual methods that would be adopted to confine the disease in case it starts to spread.