Rakesh Manchanda for BeyondHeadlines
Many friends called up to understand Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Mali is now the sixth West African country to report death of a toddler two year old girl child and now three more in Bamako in the second Ebola Tide.
Rumours 1: Ebola – Need to Fire Fight
Ebola is not a respiratory or airborne virus, and there is no evidence that this shall spread via air. Like HIV and Hepatitis B as example of viruses transmitted by bodily fluids it can never get converted to a respiratory virus.
Another strong example that this virus is not air-born is evident when you see the map and position of several Mali towns along the porous border that were not hit in past 11 months since Ebola broke out in neighbouring countries.
Rumour 2: Can Ebola Spread via Contaminated Water or River?
No! Ebola spread is never linked with water or River even though it may be polluted. The need to fight the rumourthat River Niger water as we see in the map connecting many countries including Mali is dirty so Ebola breaks.
Interestingly, Word Ebola (when co-discovered)took its name in 1976 from Ebola River in Zairi later and now called Republic of Congo. Running water as River Niger is ruled out in the outbreak of viral transmission.
Rumour 3: Can Ebola Spread via Cooked Food?
No! But vegetable and meat need to be cooked thoroughly, properly and hygienically.
Ebola is a dangerous virus; it reminds the community that the risk of contracting the infection is minimal if basic precautionary measures are followed.
Ebola is not spread through the air by respiratory secretions or casual contact like the flu or the common cold.It requires direct contact with the bodily fluids (especially vomit, blood, and feces) of someone severely ill with—or recently deceased from—the disease, or by handling or eating undercooked, contaminated bush meat, especially bats, monkeys, gorillas, and some antelope which sometimes our locals in Africa point out the poor tribal eating culture.
The illness is not contagious from person-to-person as promoted by `witch doctors` until the sick person has symptoms, such as fever, vomiting or diarrhoea. So people do not have to run to hospital to get admitted for normal fever and headache as wrongly advocated by doctors few months ago.
Ebola early messages may have added to the confusion, which now stands cleared and positive. NGOs are now trying to spread a more positive message. Rather than saying Ebola is deadly, there’s no cure, you can’t protect yourself-WHO is trying to emphasise that yes! 37% are surviving.
If Ebola spirals further out of control, it could soon threaten us all of us. The fact that a weak choice less health care system in a small country can let this monster grow to a size that threatens the world is a situation that shows how interdependent and safe we are. But this interdependence needs a `costless` religious global connectivity of People to fight rumours.
