Tackling the spread of Ebola

ISLAMABAD: The current Ebola virus outbreak is not a new challenge that the world is facing. In fact, since 1976, at least 26 outbreaks of Ebola have been recorded. All of them have occurred in the African countries of Congo, Sudan, Gabon, Cote d’Ivoire, South Africa, Uganda, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. From 1976 — when it was first identified — till 2013, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported a total of 1,716 cases. However, in the current outbreak, over 7,178 cases have been reported with more than 3,300 people dead — a fatality rate of 47 per cent. The WHO took five months to declare this a public health emergency worldwide, and by then, the outbreak had spread to several countries.

Ebola is a virus that affects multiple organ systems and causes internal and external bleeding. No vaccine or cure has been found for it yet, which has led to a high fatality rate. The symptoms may not appear for two to 21 days after the body has caught the infection. Some symptoms include fever, weakness, muscle pains, headache, body aches, sore throat, stomach pain, diarrhoea, vomiting and difficulty in breathing. Once transmitted from an animal, it can be transmitted from human to human. It mostly spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids of an infected person, such as vomit, semen, sweat or blood. That is why so many of the infections have been of healthcare workers, who nursed those infected with the virus.

It is important to remember that you can’t get Ebola through the air, water and food, but you can get it through the blood of a person or animal who is infected or who has died from Ebola. The risk of Ebola spreading is still significantly high because thousands of pilgrims from Ebola-infected Nigeria will be in Saudi Arabia at the annual Hajj pilgrimage and hence, the disease could spread to people of other countries. One can only hope that Pakistan remains isolated from any risk of infection since the public health system is fragile. So far, the government has not announced any measure to tackle the disease if it comes to our shores. And that is most worrying.

Dr Saifur Rehman

Published in The Express Tribune, October 6^th, 2014.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.