AMA Transcript - The latest Ebola developments in Australia and West Africa

BRIAN OWLER: Thank you everyone for coming out today. I think the events of yesterday evening, and of course this morning, related to the nurse's return from West Africa doing humanitarian work, and the scare of Ebola, really have focused Australia's attention on the crisis that is developing in West Africa. This is a humanitarian crisis that is really of unprecedented proportions in such a small region. We have had 4000 people die in West Africa. The number of cases that are expected to occur over the coming months is likely to increase - in fact it's increasing exponentially in Sierra Leone and in Liberia. When organisations such as the CDC and WHO start talking about 1.4 million cases, this is not something where we can stick our heads in the sand, it's not something that we can ignore as a country. Because we need to do our bit to make sure that the global impacts of this crisis in West Africa are limited; not just in terms of the number of people affected, the humanitarian tragedy that's unfolding, but also we know that it will have implications for this country unless we act.

If we don't act, it's likely to become endemic - that is we may never be able to clear the virus from West Africa - and so it is so important that not only do we give funding, but we also have the sort of people like this nurse that are going there, providing humanitarian support in West Africa, through organisations such as MSF and the Red Cross, the WHO. But there is also a role here for the Australian Government to put the resources in to facilitate and resource our teams to go and do work in a coordinated fashion to support our colleagues in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea, to make sure that we control the crisis that's occurring there.

QUESTION: The Government is saying that its biggest predicament that it faces is evacuating people, or evacuating staff, back to Australia if it sends people there.

BRIAN OWLER: Well that's right, and we wouldn't expect that staff would be evacuated to Australia if they became infected. We know that the British are actually going into Sierra Leone, and are going to build a 12-bed facility on the outskirts of Freetown. This facility is dedicated to treatment of international health care workers. We know that a number of infected health care workers have been repatriated back to Europe, and certainly Germany has said that it will take international health care workers. Those problems are not insurmountable. And unless we have more of a global response, more of an increased effort in terms of putting feet on the ground, logistics, and the sort of skills and expertise that doctors and nurses from Australia have, we are going to see this crisis in West Africa to continue to spiral out of control.

QUESTION: So what's the Government talking about then? Julie Bishop says that it can't be done.

BRIAN OWLER: Well, it can be done, we know it can be done. We know other countries are sending in health care workers: China, Cuba are sending in health care workers; United States is sending in three to four thousand personnel to do work on the ground, particularly in Liberia; the UK is sending in 750 personnel, military and also health personnel to do their bit, mainly in Sierra Leone. This facility that's going to be built in Sierra Leone will be available to people from Australia. We know that through efforts with other European countries there is a possibility to have people treated in places like Germany. I think our Foreign Minister and Government need to be doing everything they can to make that a reality.

We know that we have AUSMAT teams that have the potential, the training, the ability, the skills, the resources that are ready to go and do this sort of important work.

QUESTION: What's your response to Bob Katter's remarks that the health care workers who go there are putting their humanitarian ambitions ahead of the risk to the Australian public?

BRIAN OWLER: I think it's a disgraceful comment. What we need to do is make sure that we keep people calm. What we've seen is a number of people making people fearful in Australia. We know that we don't have any cases here of Ebola. This nurse did exactly the right thing by home quarantining, and then at the first sign of any sort of illness, a mild temperature, reported that; she's been tested as negative so far. We've had a number of health care workers, doctors and nurses that have come back from overseas that have been through that 21-day quarantine period. There have been no problems associated with that. There was no danger to the public. This person would only become contagious if they were showing significant signs of physical illness. They are not contagious in the period before that happens. And so to strike fear into the hearts of Australians and suggest that this person has put her own ambitions above the interests of the community I think is a disgraceful comment really, when we know that this is a person who is creating humanitarian work. Thank God we have people like her that are actually going and doing this work, and are selflessly giving up not only their time, effort, and pay, but also putting their life on the line for their fellow humans.

QUESTION: And what do you make of his comments that there's a huge risk of infection in the airports that she came across and into. He said there's hundreds of people that were, for instance, or that she would have come across. Is there any risk of infection to that?

BRIAN OWLER: Well she's not infectious if she's not showing any physical signs. If she had had fever, vomiting, and diarrhoea it would be a completely different scenario. But she had no physical signs, and of course there was no danger to anyone in any of those airports. There was no danger to anyone on the plane. And I think we need to be making comments on a rational basis, not trying to strike fear, drum up publicity for yourself through these sorts of comments, and we need to make sure that we act responsibly. What we need to be doing is encouraging and resourcing people - more people to be going and doing this sort of work, because unless we do this, unless we actually act as a global community and respond to this West African crisis, there are going to be more impacts for the Australian community, and the potential for cases to come here is going to be heightened.

We know we have 750 people that travel from West Africa to Australia each year. Those people are screened at the airport, people know that they're coming from West Africa, the customs and border security know where people have originated their journey - not just the flight they've come off but where their journey has originated - well in advance. They are questioned, they know the questions to ask, how to identify people, and how to screen them properly. Where we've had a number of cases, I think there are 11 now that people have been concerned and they've been flagged as potential cases of Ebola - they've all tested negative. Our hospitals are well drilled, the staff in emergency departments are running trials all of the time, making sure that their systems are in place to know how to deal with these problems. They know how to identify the patients, they know how to isolate them to protect the staff but also other patients, and we do have the resources and facilities to deal with an outbreak here.

I think it is really important that people understand the difference between the situation in West Africa, where we have literally no resources - we have men, women and children dying the streets covered in excrement from vomiting and diarrhoea. That sort of scenario exists right now in West Africa. Here we have the resources, the facilities, and the hospitals to isolate people properly, to make sure that the infection is contained and isolated should that happen. We have the public health officials that can do the proper contact tracing and surveillance. So I think the situation here is very much different from West Africa should a case of Ebola ever arrive here. That remains unlikely as long as people continue to take the right precautions.

Thank you.

10 October 2014

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                            Odette Visser                      02 6270 5464 / 0427 209 753