by Vytenis Andriukaitis, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety

The Ebola outbreak was the first challenge that I had to deal with when I entered the office almost one year ago. Together with Commissioner Stylianides, I went to the affected countries - Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. We stayed only for a few days but not only we saw but also felt what was going on. I could only imagine what it was to fight this deadly disease on the ground for months and to contain its spread.

The idea of the Health award came shortly after we came back. We wanted to recognise and reward initiatives of NGOs fighting Ebola in the field and promoting higher levels of public health in Europe, and worldwide.

That is why and how the first ever EU Health Award came to life. And because this year it aimed at rewarding  the heroic efforts, courage and determination of the NGOs involved in fighting Ebola in Western Africa, it only made sense to announce the prizes at the 'Lessons learnt from Ebola' Conference in Luxembourg, which was jointly organised by the European Commission and the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the European Union.  

The EU Health Award aims to reward the initiatives and engagement of international, European, national and regional non-governmental organisations who have made a significant contribution to public health within and beyond the borders of the EU. This year, I wanted the award to recognize the fight against Ebola but there will be a different theme each year. I would like this award, to recognise past accomplishments, but also to encourage organizations to continue their vital work in the future.

This year, the prize-winners have provided us with best practice examples that help improve our readiness to cope with serious crisis. They were selected from 26 worthy candidates by an EU Jury, composed of public health specialists and representatives of EU non-governmental bodies chaired by the Commission.  After long deliberation, the jurors selected three winners: ALIMA – the Alliance for International Medical Action, Concern Worldwide and the Spanish Red Cross.

ALIMA was awarded first prize for helping to contain the spread of the virus in Mali and Senegal, for providing treatment, transmission control and surveillance while building an Ebola Treatment Centre in Guinea and for contributing to research on Ebola treatment.

The second prize went to Concern Worldwide for helping to provide safe and dignified burials and for mapping graves in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

The Spanish Red Cross won the third prize for their "Five pillars of Intervention" for Ebola response which provided direct health care, contact tracing, surveillance and psychosocial support to local communities and helped to create and run Ebola Treatment Centres in West Africa.

Among the many "Lessons learnt from Ebola" is that it takes a coordinated, united effort to safeguard the world's health.  Disease knows no borders, but as these NGOs have shown us, neither do courage and compassion.