In my article section of this column, I provided some highlights about Ebola, so I will add more useful information which aren’t discussed in the article. Currently there is no licensed vaccine for Ebola virus disease. Several vaccines are being tested, but none are available for clinical use right now. Raising awareness of the risk factors and measures people can take to protect themselves are the only ways to reduce illness and deaths.
Some ways to prevent infection and transmission
1. While initial cases of Ebola virus disease are contracted by handling infected animals or carcasses, secondary cases occur by direct contact with the bodily fluids of an ill person, either through unsafe case management or unsafe burial practices. During this outbreak, most of the disease spread through human-to-human transmission. Several steps can be taken to help in preventing infection, limiting or stopping transmission.
2. Understand the nature of the disease, how it is transmitted, and how to prevent it from spreading further.
3. Listen to and follow directives issued by your country’s respective Ministry of Health.
4. If you suspect someone close to you or in your community of having Ebola virus disease, encourage and support them in seeking appropriate medical treatment in a care facility.
5. If you choose to care for an ill person in your home, notify public health officials of your intentions so they can train you and provide appropriate gloves and personal protective equipment (PPE), as well as instructions as a reminder on how to properly care for the patient, protect yourself and your family, and properly dispose of the materials after use.
6. When visiting patients in the hospital or caring for someone at home, hand washing with soap and water is recommended after touching a patient, being in contact with their bodily fluids, or touching his/her surroundings.
7. People who have died from Ebola should only be handled using appropriate protective equipment and should be buried immediately.
8. Additionally, individuals should reduce contact with high-risk infected animals (i.e. fruit bats, monkeys or apes) in the affected rainforest areas. If you suspect an animal is infected, do not handle it. Animal products (blood and meat) should be thoroughly cooked before eating.
9. Health workers treating patients with suspected or confirmed illness are at higher risk of infection than other groups.
10. In addition to standard health care precautions, health workers should strictly apply recommended infection control measures to avoid exposure to infected blood, fluids, or contaminated environments or objects – such as a patient’s soiled linen or used needles.
11. They should use personal protection equipment such as individual gowns, gloves, masks and goggles or face shields.
12. They should not reuse protective equipment or clothing unless they have been properly disinfected.
13. They should change gloves between caring for each patient suspected of having Ebola.
14. Invasive procedures that can expose medical doctors, nurses and others to infection should be carried out under strict, safe conditions.
15. Infected patients should be kept separate from other patients and healthy people, as much as possible.
16. The risk of infection for travellers is very low since person-to-person transmission results from direct contact with the body fluids or secretions of an infected patient.
17. Travellers should avoid all contact with infected patients.
18. Anyone who has stayed in areas where cases were recently reported should be aware of the symptoms of infection and seek medical attention at the first sign of illness.
