Israelis and Palestinians Unite to Combat Ebola Outbreak

Israeli and Palestinian officials met over the weekend to draft a plan to combat and control the Ebola outbreak from spreading within their territories, Israeli military confirmed on Sunday (12 October).

"During the meeting (on Saturday evening), updates were exchanged between the parties, and transfer of information was agreed upon by way of additional meetings to take place in order to further track the issue," said COGAT, the defence ministry unit that handles the Palestinian civilian coordination.

One of the joint proposals included Israel to provide training to Palestinian and Jordanian medical staff on advanced epidemiology, said a health ministry official.

Assad Ramlawi from the Palestinian health ministry said:

"There are contacts with the Israeli side regarding this within the context of WHO's instructions on fighting this virus, which is a global task. There are common crossings and we have contacts on this, nothing more or less."

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with a number of health, military, police, border crossings and other officials on Sunday (12 October) to discuss how best to combat the epidemic that is slowly creeping into the United States.

"We are taking a certain number of measures to isolate any sick people from countries at risk and to treat them of course. This is a global epidemic and we are cooperating with other states," said Netanyahu in a statement.

A second report emerged from the United States confirming a female health care worker, who cared for victim Thomas Duncan at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, tested positive for Ebola at the hospital.

Thomas Duncan had contracted the Ebola virus during a visit to Liberia. He died in the hospital on Wednesday, and the female healthcare worker reported a fever on Friday.

New York's JFK airport has also started Ebola screening for passengers arriving from West Africa.

So far, there are no reported cases of Ebola in either Israel or the Palestinian territories.

Ebola has claimed a total of 4,000 lives till date, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).