23 Amendments of Ignazio CORRAO related to 2014/2204(INI)
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas widespread confusion and prevailing misunderstandings about the causes and consequences of EVD have perpetuated the spread of the virus;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas the Ebola crisis has resulted in another problem which Médecins Sans Frontières has referred to as 'a crisis within a crisis', namely that people with conditions other than Ebola are not going to hospital for fear that they will be infected with the virus; and at the same time hospitals and health staff have no capacity to deal with other diseases due to the resources mobilized to fight the Ebola epidemic;
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas in the first few months of the Ebola crisis, the humanitarian NGOs – Médecins Sans Frontières, Emergency and the Red Cross in particular – were the most effective, best-informed and most experienced players and those most capable of playing a front-line role in initial efforts to combat the virus;
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
Fa. whereas Ebola virus is not only a public health catastrophe but also has long-lasting psychological, social and economic effects for the countries concerned by the virus;
Amendment 41 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F b (new)
Recital F b (new)
Fb. whereas following the death of a relative, rumours and fear surrounding Ebola virus for women and girls persists; whereas the loss of the parents are creating a growing number of orphans which experience difficulties in reintegrating themselves into their families and communities and may face repudiation and stigmatisation;
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F c (new)
Recital F c (new)
Fc. whereas the closing of schools and the tendency for orphaned children to become caregivers in households risk creating a 'lost generation' of children deprived of formal education for long periods of time;
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas the European Council has appointed an Ebola coordinator in October 2014;
Amendment 51 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I a (new)
Recital I a (new)
Ia. whereas EU emergency aid in response to the EVT pandemic could have been better, characterised as it was by the lack of rapid technical assistance on the ground, the unwillingness of Member States to cooperate and inadequate central EU coordination;
Amendment 55 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L a (new)
Recital L a (new)
La. whereas access to medicines is a key part of the right to health;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital R a (new)
Recital R a (new)
Ra. whereas female nurses represent the majority of health staff who have been infected and died from the virus; whereas the humanitarian crisis has put a drain on healthcare facilities, equipment and personnel;
Amendment 84 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Calls on the EU countries and heads of international organisations to learn from this situation and to develop effective means of dealing promptly with international health crises;
Amendment 90 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Calls on the international community to promote information and education campaigns in the countries concerned, and largely in high risk countries of the region, to make aware of unsafe practices that should be avoided, and to spread accurate information that helps limit the risk of infection in a manner that does not interfere with local customs;
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Expresses its concern over the fact that information about EVD and its spread is not reaching everyone because of poor literacy; stresses the importance of alternative means of disseminating information, for example by providing more information over the radio; notes a degree of mistrust on the part of authorities in the affected area, and stresses the importance of providing essential medical treatment in rural areas as well;
Amendment 92 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 c (new)
Paragraph 2 c (new)
2c. Welcomes and thanks all the humanitarian NGOs – Médecins Sans Frontières, Emergency and the Red Cross in particular – for their work;
Amendment 98 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls for the establishment of a European rapid response capability comprising experts, laboratory support staff, epidemiologists and logistics facilities that can be deployed extremely swiftly; draws attention in particular to the contribution the EU can make to screening at land and maritime borders and to the fact that the Union could seek to emulate and benefit from the level of excellence achieved by the US health authorities in screening at airports;
Amendment 107 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Urges the Commission to help the three countries affected to develop their own public health systems in order for them to be able to meet basic healthcare needs and to build up the infrastructure required to ensure that all their citizens have access to public healthcare; calls on international donors, especially the European Commission and EU Member States to increase Official Development Assistance (ODA) to those countries through country systems such as budget support to build resilient health systems, including support countries to plan, cost and establish functioning health posts and district hospitals that serve health needs and that also connect with referral systems;
Amendment 111 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Stresses, in general, the need for developing countries to give budgetary priority to setting up robust public social security and public health systems, building sufficient numbers of well- equipped sustainable healthcare infrastructure (in particular laboratories, water and sanitation facilities) and offering high-quality basic services and healthcare; Nevertheless, acknowledges that crisis such as the current cannot be solved by health system alone, but a comprehensive approach involving different sectors such as education and training, sanitation, food safety, drinking water, is needed to address the critical gaps in all essential services; at the same time that stresses that education, covering the cultural dimensions and beliefs are key as well in the recovery;
Amendment 126 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Calls for research infrastructure to be bolstered by the establishment of a regional public infection disease research centre in West Africa;
Amendment 129 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Supports the introduction of public universal health cover based on partnerships that will result in sustainable health systems;
Amendment 135 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. WelcomesInsist on the need of international efforts to alleviate the international debt burden of the countries affected by the Ebola virus;
Amendment 144 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Commends the humanitarian aid workers and medical staff who have risked their lives in the efforts to contain this major health crisis;
Amendment 145 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Believes that access to medicines should, as a matter of principle,must no longer be dependent on patients' purchasing power but should instead be universal and geared to patients' needs, and that market forces should not be the sole determinant of which medicines to produce; and that R&D financing must be unlinked from the price of products that result from it; stresses that the Ebola crisis proved the intellectual property monopolies on pharmaceutical products which allowed companies to set the prices of the new medicines and vaccines they develop and skew R&D in order to maximise their profits; highlights that these rules stem from the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS); calls on the EU and its Member States to endorse a Research & Development treaty which promotes public funding for R&D and is focused on the needs of public health in order to provide vaccines, diagnostics and medicines for diseases such as Ebola;
Amendment 152 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)
Paragraph 18 a (new)
18a. Underlines the need for the EU, its Member States, donors and international agencies to build on the experiences from Ebola outbreaks in other countries that highlight a series of key factors to control diseases, including effective health systems, rapid government action, meaningful community participation, use of media to disseminate information and rapid coordinated international response; urges governments to enable civil society to play their role in ensuring accountability and transparency by all stakeholders and to foster trust among communities by ensuring their participation in decision-making at the highest political level;