The UN is on the alert for Ebola as delegates representing 170 countries gathered on Monday at the former German parliament building in Bonn for a week-long session of climate talks.
The only leaflet on the registration desk was an advisory note to all participants and visitors about the “rare and severe” Ebola virus disease (EVD), for which there is currently no known cure.
“When infected, people can get very sick and experience fever, intense weakness, headache, sore throat and pains, and may bleed from different parts of the body (i.e., haemorrhage),” it says.
The 162-strong African Group at this round of talks includes two delegates each from Liberia and Guinea and one from Sierra Leone. These are the three west African countries most seriously affected by EVD.
While nobody’s temperature is being taken on the way into the conference centre on the Rhine, all bathrooms in the complex are supplied with a branded skin hygiene gel as well as liquid soap.
The UN leaflet explains that most EVD cases have occurred as a result of direct contact with the “blood, secretions, organs or other body fluids of infected people”, or with contaminated bedding or clothing.
“Visitors/participants should be aware that, according to the World Health Organisation, the risk of introducing EVD to and transmitting it at an international meeting is generally very low,” it says.
The leaflet then gives “essential information” about the symptoms of EVD so that people attending the Bonn talks this week would know what to do “in case you get sick during your visit or meeting”.
It advises anyone who may have symptoms of EVD to “see a health care provider immediately”. These symptoms include sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat.
“This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function [and] in some cases, both internal and external bleeding,” the leaflet says, referring to the more advanced form of the disease.
Anyone with such symptoms is advised to “immediately contact” first aid staff. “An isolation room will be available, and trained and equipped emergency medical staff with an ambulance will be called in to assist.”
Those staying at a hotel are told not to approach reception or use public or private transport to get to a hospital. “Please stay in your hotel room and call immediately the UN Bonn Security Control Center.”
Meanwhile, a succession of speakers at the opening plenary session in the former Bundestag chamber stressed the “positive momentum” generated by last month’s UN climate change summit in New York.
But there were still divisions on what’s known in the trade as “intended nationally determined contributions”, or INDCs – in other words, what each country would do to reduce its carbon emissions.
