Ebola virus: Help! My wife and kids have fled from me! Help!!!

 I come back from a journey and as usual, my wife and kids come running to hug and kiss me welcome and I sneeze (because superstitiously, someone’s calling my name somewhere) and my wife and kids take a dive and flee from me. And then calls the Ministry of Health’s emergency number! Haba!

 The current Ebola virus threat has thrown up certain preventive “tips” that may hurt relationships and destroy social interactions if not properly handled. The social media and instant messaging services are awash with “socially dangerous tips” that make the Ebola virus look like a plague bigger than it is and thus portraying a “war situation”.

The fact remains though, Ebola virus is a deadly virus that kills fast. It is highly contagious too. But is there need to panic and fret? Is there need to pack our bags from the highly populated cities and crawl into the “remotest” enclaves? No. No.

Representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and word from them has helped us to narrow down the potpourri of preventive dos and donts into simple preventive steps.

 

Note this: the risk to most travelers is low but travelers could be infected if they come in contact with the blood or body fluids of a person already ill and showing the acute signs of Ebola. Conatct with sick wildlife and infected bushmeat could also expose a person. 

Below is information on how the virus is transmitted and how you can protect yourself:

·         The suspected reservoirs for Ebola are fruit bats.

·         Transmission to humans is thought to originate from infected bats or primates(monkeys, chimpanzees, baboons etc) 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 five to eight days before becoming ill.  THE PERSON IS 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, faeces, urine, breast milk, semen and sweat).

·         There are documented cases from Kikwit, Democratic Republic of Congo 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.

·         As always practice good hand washing techniques (Hands, cloths,  food, fruits, vegetables, meat, etc) Good hygiene