B.C.-based aid workers are finding their travel health insurance in West Africa has been limited in the Ebola outbreak, which is preventing them from helping mount a defense against the disease.

Kent Bubbs Junior, the Liberian director of the non-profit Universal Outreach Foundation, says he’d be in Liberia right now using education to stop Ebola’s spread, but can’t return because a medevac can’t be arranged.

“The reason why Ebola is landing on our doorstep here is because we’re not fighting it there,” says Bubbs, who lives in Liberia but whose organization is based in B.C.

“In two other cases it cost $3 million to evacuate (people infected),” he said. “We don’t have those funds and we can’t take that risk.”

About $365 million has been committed to stop Ebola in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, where some 4500 people have been killed and 9000 have been infected. The UN has estimated it will need a total of $1 billion to contain Ebola.

Bubbs said there is a place for large-scale Ebola fighting measures, which involves the construction of large quarantine centres.

But Bubbs said some 80 per cent of Liberians have so far avoided those centres, and ones outside the capital Monrovia aren’t changing other risky behavior. That takes community intervention which is best done by non-government organizations, for a fraction of the cost, he said.

“We need more health care workers to go over there,” he said. “And if we can help educate them on the chances of getting Ebola, and providing resources like insurance for those people who are there, we’ll see a lot more health care workers going to Liberia.”

Their insurer, Allianz Worldwide Care, wrote to deny Universal Outreach coverage.

“Please be advised that any medically necessary evacuation will be covered once you are not diagnosed with Ebola or other Viral Haemorrhagic Fevers,” wrote Philip Byrne.

“Also please note in the case of suspected or confirmed Ebola cases, we would liaise closely with our clients and brokers to see whether there is a possibility of military medical evacuation via support from the patient’s local Embassy and home government,” Byrne said.

However Allianz Worldwide Care told CTV News that they would honour commitments to pay for “all investigations and treatment of the Ebola infection,” wrote spokesperson Carolyn Monchouguy.

“Unfortunately our air ambulance partners are currently not evacuating patients with suspected or confirmed Ebola infection out of affected regions due to the highly complex nature of evaucations when Ebola or other viral haemorrhagic fevers are involved,” Monchouguy wrote.

Bubbs’ concerns were echoed by another aid worker, Anne-Catherine Bajard, the Liberian country director for IBIS, a non-profit educational NGO.

“If they are going to save lives, and they are going with the appropriate equipment, they should also have evacuation,” she said.

“Closing borders is not going to stop this. What is going to stop this will be to attack it at the source,” she said.

A bulletin from Medical Teams International says the lack of medevac is preventing aid workers from Australia working on the ground without commitments from European countries to facilitate Australian citizens.

The bulletin says that the U.K., the U.S., Norway, Spain and France have facilitated evacuations, though Canada is not on that list.

Private companies including Allianz Worldwide Care will not facilitate the medevac service, but will “help to broker medevac with military air services,” the bulletin said.

“Currently, the countries who have stepped forward to provide national health care workers include: Cuba, the U.K., France, and China,” it said.

The Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade did not answer questions by deadline.