HEALTH: Ebola-Tips Nobody Should Ever Forget

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HEALTH AND FITNESS: Ebola-Tips Nobody Should Ever Forget

By Jorge Jefferds October 27, 2014 

While the mass media has subsequently alerted the population worldwide about new Ebola outbreaks, medical institutions and governments are doing their best to control the disease.

People, however, are becoming scarier with the everyday news and more vulnerable to make mistakes with false or incorrect information.

Therefore, it is very important to keep in mind where to get the most accurate information. One of the richest sources of news about Ebola can be found at www.who.int , the official page of the World Health Organization.

Here is, for example, a list they explain, containing key facts we must be aware of.

•  Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic Fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans. 
•  The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission. The average EVD case fatality rate is around 50%. Case fatality rates have varied from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks. 
• The first EVD outbreaks occurred in remote villages in Central Africa,near tropical rainforests, but the most recent outbreak in west Africa has involved major urban as well as rural areas. 
•  Community engagement is key to successfully controlling outbreaks. Good outbreak control relies on applying a package of interventions, namely case management, surveillance and contact tracing, a good laboratory service, safe burials and social mobilization. 
•  Early supportive care with rehydration, symptomatic treatment improves survival. There is as yet no licensed treatment proven to neutralize the virus but a range of blood, immunological and drug therapies are under development. 
•  There are currently no licensed Ebola vaccines but 2 potential candidates are undergoing evaluation.

Prevention is essential with those, who work in health care, travel to and from African countries, and deal with exotic animals. Remember. Get informed in the WHO website. Visit the nearest health center if you have questions or any suspicion of a possible virus spread around you, relatives, or acquaintances. Anyway, you cannot transmit Ebola until you are sick-sudden high fever, extreme tiredness.