Ukweli juu ya Ebola from USA Embassy Nigeria:
Just Received:
This latest alert from the US Embassy here in Nigeria about the much talked about Ebola virus is a sort of relief especially to those who have been reading so many scary and panic information online. Even the statements from the Federal government yesterday doesn't help matter.
So now make sure you read this information and have some peace of mind. Read below...
In order to help our Embassy Community better understand some of the key points about the Ebola virus we have consulted with our medical specialists at the U S State Department and assembled this list of bullet points worded in plain language for easy comprehension. Our medical specialists remind everyone that they should be following the guideline from the center for Disease Control and the World Health Organisation.
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. Continue...
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.
West African Wanakula hawa Popo, Hivyo basi some where Mtu alikula Nyama isioiva Vizuri ya Popo, Ndo akasambaza kwa wengine.
UN warns West Africans to stay away from fruit bats as Ebola spreads
The UN's food agency is warning that fruit bats, common in stews in West Africa, are likely to spread the disease
July 21, 2014 5:01PM ET
As the death toll from the
worlds deadliest-ever Ebola outbreak surged past 600 in West Africa, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned West Africans to stay away from certain popular wildlife species that are thought to carry the disease.
We are not suggesting that people stop hunting altogether, which isnt realistic, FAOs chief veterinary officer Juan Lubroth said in a
release on Monday. But communities need clear advice on the need not to touch dead animals or to sell or eat the meat of any animal that they find already dead. They should also avoid hunting animals that are sick or behaving strangely, as this is another red flag.
Fruit bats are among the most notorious for spreading disease, according to the FAO. The U.N. organization said West Africas current epidemic, which has so far killed at least 604 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, was probably first transferred from an infected animal, and then began spreading between people. Ebola is transferred by direct contact with the blood or body of infected people or animals.
Fruit bats are often eaten dried, or as part of a soup in West Africa. Unlike other animals, they may show no signs of having been infected with Ebola, so the U.N. recommends that they be avoided altogether.
Several African governments have tried to ban the sales of bat and other meats because of their potential to carry disease, but medical pronouncements and medical professionals are often greeted with suspicion in rural parts of West Africa.
There is a lot of mistrust to the extent that people are hiding patients rather than getting medical help, and its very difficult to control the disease in the midst of many myths and rumors, said Katinka de Balogh, FAOs veterinary public health officer.
In one past outbreak, Ebola, which can cause organ failure and internal bleeding, had a case fatality rate of 90 percent.
Al Jazeera
UN warns West Africans to stay away from fruit bats as Ebola spreads | Al Jazeera America
FAO warns people can get infected with Ebola by eating fruit bats | Fox News Latino
