- Nonessential travel to Ebola affected countries like Guinea and Sierra Leone should be avoided.
- If travelling is unavoidable, then the following points should be kept in mind-
- Check what all is covered under your health insurance in case you get ill while on your trip. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends people travelling to Guinea to have full coverage for emergency medical evacuation.
- Hygiene should be practiced carefully. Hands should be washed frequently with soap and water or using a hand sanitizer.
- Any kind of contact with body or body fluids such as saliva, urine, vomit, sweat, faeces, semen and breast milk should be avoided.
- Since contact with body fluids need to be avoided, hence any items that may have come in contact with infected person’s blood or body fluids should not be handled.
- Participating in burial rituals or funerals should be avoided. No contact with dead bodies should be made.
- Sexual transmission of Ebola is yet to be studied more deeply. Hence sexual contact with a man recovered from Ebola should be avoided. Contact with such person’s semen during oral, vaginal or anal sex should not be made. Condom should be used during sexual intercourse.
- Contact with animals, especially bats and monkeys should be avoided. No contact with meat whether cooked or raw should be made.
- Meat of wild animals which are hunted for food should not be eaten or handled.
- Facilities in West Africa where treatment of Ebola patients is being carried on should be avoided to be visited
- If on your visit, you get fever 4°F / 38°C or above or other Ebola symptoms such as severe headache, fatigue, diarrhoea, vomiting, stomach pain or any unexplained bruising / bleeding, you should immediately seek medical attention. Do not travel anywhere else after developing any such symptoms and avoid contact to other people while on your way to doctor.
- Those who will be working in healthcare settings should wear personal protective equipment. Proper infection control and decontamination measures should be adopted.
Ebola virus causes Ebola virus disease (EVD), also known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever or Ebola. The disease caused by the virus is often fatal. The virus gets spread by direct contact with bodily fluids or blood of an infected person or infected animal. The symptoms of the disease are not very clear and the disease initially feels like flu. The symptoms include stomach pain, muscle aches, vomit, diarrhea, unexplained bleeding or bruising and fatigue. As of now, there is no known medication or vaccine which is effective. The scientists are still in the early stages of understanding how the infection caused by Ebola virus can be treated. There are a number of experimental treatments that are being considered for use in cases of Ebola outbreaks. The experimental treatments are under clinical trials. As there is no cure for Ebola and research is still going on for finding one, the experimental treatment carried out by the doctors include a serum that is said to destroy the infected cell...