EU health ministers, over two days starting on Monday, are to tackle ways of coordinating efforts to confront the Ebola virus which is spreading in western Africa.
European countries are assessing what resources they have to help fight Ebola and are planning a coordinated response to the worst outbreak of the virus in history, Italy's health minister Beatrice Lorenzin said on the sidelines of the meeting.
The European Union has already pledged EUR 140 million (USD 180 million) to reinforce the fight against Ebola in West Africa, where the hemorrhagic fever has killed at least 2,793 people in five countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
"Only four or five countries in Europe are equipped. We will work together to coordinate the aid effort," Lorenzin said.
Lorenzin added that no definitive decisions about how to proceed would be made, but Europe would formulate a plan of action to present at a forthcoming meeting in Washington.