Speaking at the Africa Down Under conference in Perth today, Heymann outlined strategies for containing, mitigating and preventing occurrences of infectious diseases, stressing the role miners could play by helping educate regional communities.

“It’s very difficult to look at any place but the bottom line for any private company, no matter what it is,” Heymann told reporters after his presentation.

“I know, many times mining companies think they’re being asked to do everything and the government does very little. Part of that is because mining companies don’t spend enough time engaging local, regional and national governments as equal partners.”

Heymann said it was very important to create equal partnerships and links between the three tiers of governments; it should not be the industry only giving everything.

Heymann, who is a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Topical Medicine, head of the Centre on Global Health Security at Chatham House and chairman of Public Health UK, presented in the context of a spreading ebola outbreak in west Africa.

Spread of the outbreak has so far been confirmed in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, causing more than 1000 deaths and the suspension of operations by a number of mining companies.

Heymann described the history of the virus to conference delegates, flagging a recent occurrence in the Democratic Republic of Congo and confirming a connection with animal transmission of ebola pathogens.

He said the best way to control the outbreak was through strict isolation of patients, surveillance, diagnosis and educating communities.

Mining companies were urged to participate particularly in community and government relations, sharing financial, technical and logistical resources.

“They need to do a little bit more in understanding what the risks are externally, for example, if there are bats around flying everywhere, are there means of stopping those bats from flying in certain areas,” Heymann said.

“Are there means of preventing bush meat from entering communities, bush meat that might be infected with something that could spread into the human population?”

While a good mitigation response to an outbreak in a rural area can control spreading within two to four months, the latest outbreak has become complicated, crossing international lines and demanding more engagement from all parties involved.

“Because there has been such a lack of trust by the people in their governments, this will continue to shut down all infrastructure until the outbreaks have ended,” Heymann said.

“There’s been a robust international response and hopefully the world will step up and participate in this continuing activity – but it’s something that could have been prevented had that first outbreak in Guinea been rapidly contained when it was identified.”

Heymann also warned that companies outside of effected areas should participate in prevention activities.

“It’s time to take this to heart because there will always be a risk of emerging infections,” he said.

“While the world is concentrated on west Africa, another emergence occurred, as you know, in the DRC.

“Cases jump from animals to humans regularly. There’s always a need to systematically consider emerging infectious diseases in business.”