European Union's Health Commissioner Tonio Borg Friday reassured European citizens that the risk from Ebola to EU territories is extremely low. "This is both because relatively few people travelling to the EU are likely to be infected with the virus, and because of the way in which it spreads, i.e. only through direct contact with the symptomatic patient's body fluids," he said in a statement.
Borg noted that that World Health Organisation today declared the worsening situation regarding the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
Over the last eight months this outbreak has claimed the lives of over 900 people in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone and has recently affected people from Nigeria and the USA.
In the last few days an EU patient - a Spanish national, who contracted the Ebola virus in Liberia, has been repatriated to Spain to receive health, said the EU Commissioner.
"The EU has been following the situation in West Africa for many months and, in the unlikely event of Ebola reaching the EU, we are prepared in the face of the virus," he stressed.
The EU Health Security Committee is coordinating the exchange of information and coordination of preparedness, in response to Ebola in the EU. Information for travelers to the affected regions is already available and regularly updated.
"In this grave situation it is essential that we all cooperate together in a spirit of solidarity. I am confident that together, with the support of people in the affected countries and our own citizens that the present outbreak will be successfully contained," he added.