Ebola Scare and how to stay safe

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has caused so much tension. The fear of physical contact with people is very evident on the faces of many people walking up and down the crowded streets of Lagos.

The virus has been declared extremely dangerous as a result of the rapid decline hence death of the victims and worse still, is the fact that there is no cure.

Crowded places like religious gatherings, clubs and events where physical contact is possible are fast becoming some of the most scary places to go lately. There’s been so many rumours about how the virus is contracted and the dearth of credible information on the virus has led to the spread.

The question now is, how can we stay safe and prevent ourselves from contracting the deadly Ebola virus?

The US embassy in Nigeria in conjunction with the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently released very useful tips on how to stay safe. Find them below:

• The suspected reservoirs for Ebola are fruit bats.

• Transmission to humans is thought to originate from infected bats or primates that have become infected by bats.

• Undercooked infected bat and primate (bush) meat transmits the virus to humans.

• Human to human transmission is only achieved by physical contact with a person who is acutely and gravely ill from the Ebola virus or their body fluids.

• Transmission among humans is almost exclusively among caregiver family members or health care workers tending to the very ill.

• The virus is easily killed by contact with soap, bleach, sunlight, or drying. A washing machine will kill the virus in clothing saturated with infected body fluids.

• A person can incubate the virus without symptoms for 2-21 days, the average being 5-8 days before becoming ill. THEY ARE NOT CONTAGIOUS until they are acutely ill.

• Only when ill does the viral load express itself first in the blood and then in other bodily

fluids (to include vomit, feces, urine, breast milk, semen and sweat).

• If you are walking around you are not infectious to others.

• There are documented cases from Kikwit, DRC of an Ebola outbreak in a village that had the custom of children never touching an ill adult. Children living for days in small one room huts with parents who died from Ebola did not become infected.

• You cannot contract Ebola by handling money, buying local bread or swimming in a pool.

• There is no medical reason to stop flights, close borders, restrict travel or close embassies, businesses or schools.

• As always practice good hand washing techniques, but you will not contract Ebola if you do not touch a dying person.

Onyeka Ibeanusi