ASHA HAYES, MAHDI BEY

EBOLA POSITION PAPER

The Ebola Virus Disease (EDV) is an up and coming pandemic that has
effected over 9,000 people and has killed almost half of those infected. Those
infected begin with fever like symptoms as well as body pain and overall discomfort.
Other symptoms that come later with this disease include vomiting, diarrhea, and
both internal and external bleeding. Further progression can lead to organ failure
and death. This virus has had many outbreaks, the current one getting the most
attention. The earliest recorded Ebola outbreak was 1979 in The Democratic
Republic of Congo with 318 cases and 280 deaths. The United Nations just recently
launched resolution 2177 (2014) urging immediate action, end to isolation of
affected states. This resolution requires heavily affected countries to speed up the
detection and treatment process, as well as calls countries that border these
affected countries to lift their border restrictions.
The Dominican Republic (DR) has no previous relationship with Ebola, and is
not the most active country in the United Nations (UN). However, the Dominican
Republic has been active in many resolutions, including one that was specifically for
the DR, Resolution 203 (1965). This Resolution was adopted to restore order to the
Dominican Civil War. Currently the DR has faced their own problem concerning the
EVD outbreak. On Wednesday, October 8th of this year US Airways Flight 845
stopped on the tarmac in Punta Cana because of a passenger claiming he had
Ebola. A hazmat crew went on board and escorted the passenger of the plane, and
took him to the airports medical center to be examined. Even though the
passenger did not have the virus, this story has become viral and has opened not
only the eyes of the Dominican Government, but to many other countries and the
CDC, to securing their airports and prohibiting people with Ebola symptoms from
boarding planes. Because of this many airports around the world, including the DR
have tightened their security with health inspections to insure people are in a
healthy condition to travel.
As stated earlier, many countries are in forcing their health inspections when
people board and get off planes. There has been reports on a future legislation to
ban travel to and from these highly infected countries, however none mention the
Dominican Republic in any reports. The Dominican Republic however is very open to
this legislation and any others that should benefit the health of people not yet
infected. As representatives of the Dominican Republic we recommend that more
members of the P5 take action to prevent this deadly disease from spreading.