Ebola outbreak "tantamount to genocide" - expert

Ebola outbreak "tantamount to genocide" - expert

"I am very angry. The World Health Organization, headed by Margaret Chan, should go to court and be held responsible, because they have allowed so many people to die needlessly. The UN, as well, urgently needs to reconsider its position on Ebola, because what is happening is tantamount to a planned genocide. Africa is currently threatened, but unless Ebola is stopped soon, the disease will spread to other continents," he told the Frankfurt, Germany, based Serbian language daily Vesti.

The virus spreads quickly, while there is no concrete evidence in the field that it is being suppressed - except for predictions that soon another 20,000 people will die, said this epidemiologist who was a member of a team that originally discovered the disease as a new deadly virus during the first outbreak 38 years ago.

"We had probably about 500 people die then and the disease was halted, but today the World Health Organization deals with predictions while the UN coordinator in charge of Ebola, instead of being on the ground where the disease is spreading, sits here in America," Prvulovic noted, and added he was constantly in contact with the United African Congress and was invited to Liberia to help, where he was promised "a free hand, and cooperation from the president, the police and the military."

According to him, "in order to stop the spread of Ebola dictatorial behavior is necessary. This means a total quarantine for all patients and those who were in contact with them, as well as medical staff."

According to him, "today in the villages of Liberia the dead are lying in the streets, before the burial they are bathed and put in hallow graves instead of being cremated, and all their personal belongings immediately burned."

"If there is no other way, all contact with those infected and those in quarantine should be prevented with the help of the police and the military. That's what we did four decades ago, it worked, but we also gave instructions in local languages on how to recognize Ebola and what people must do to be safe. Obviously today there's none of that," he was quoted as saying.

However, in order to go Liberia now Prvulovic needs the approval of the UN and its diplomatic passport, and for the United African Congress and Liberia to formally ask WHO that he be sent as a special envoy, a status that it is necessary to give him "a free hand."

"In addition, it is necessary to immediately donate equipment and medicines in sufficient quantities to Liberia and other countries that are most under threat, including equipment to produce a serum from the blood of those who survived Ebola. Everyone who survives becomes permanently immune, if only 250 grams were taken from such a person the serum made from it could aid in treating about 50 patients. A serum could help to have more than 40 percent of all patients survive, instead of the ten percent that is the current indicator," said Prvulovic adding that the present outbreak has shown that medicines used in AIDS treatment have also given results.

Asked "what he would do if Ebola appeared in Serbia," Prvulovic said he would "immediately come to Serbia" - as he did during the smallpox outbreak in the former Yugoslavia in the 1970s.

This expert also noted that judging by the procedures in place the Serbian Ministry of Health was acting "very responsibly and professionally, respecting and implementing all the necessary preventive procedures."