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Recommended Personal Ebola Protection Measures

By Lena Stephenson


Families and health workers in an Ebola infested environment should take precautions despite the fact that transmission risks are extremely low. The risk reduces because a person may only contract the disease through several elaborate ways including direct or indirect contact with feces, vomit, semen, blood and urine, among other body fluids. This makes Ebola protection measures necessary for such individuals. Dead victims have the potential of transmitting the disease as well.

A person who displays signs such as body aches, diarrhea, high fever and joint pains should seek immediate medical assistance. Hemorrhaging should also be reported at the earliest opportunity. Immediate action includes isolation and specific professional treatment with the aim of increasing the rate of survival.

Other conditions that increase the risk of infection are broken skin and contact with mucus membranes. Indirect contact with blood and fluids from infected victims leads to transmission. Some of the materials that are likely to lead to indirect transmission include gloves, masks, bed linen and goggles, among other victim handling accessories. Male victims can transmit the disease to their female sexual partners through semen up to seven weeks after recovery.

Health organizations and institutions have released standard protective gear for handling affected patients and materials. The recommendations must be followed by health workers in these facilities and those supporting their work. The gears seek to provide adequate cover to all body parts and ensure a standard and safe operation procedure.

Health workers are warned to be wary of such risks as stigma, long strenuous working hours, psychological distress and violence when working in affected areas. There is a danger of excessive heat from the protective gear. Ergonomic challenges arise from lifting loads and bodies within the facility.

The symptoms of Ebola are likely to be confused with such other diseases as typhoid fever, malaria, rickettsipsis, and cholera. Shigellosis, viral hemorrhagic fevers and relapsing hepatitis also exhibit similar signs. This means that care should only be provided in a hospital or heath facility with qualified doctors and necessary equipment.

Home based care givers or personnel in ill equipped health facilities are at a higher risk of exposure. This includes traditional healers, family members and midwives in villages since they come into direct contact with victims. Other dangerous avenues include rites and rituals that demand mourners to touch bodily fluids of the dead.

Travelers to areas where the disease has been reported are exposed to a lower risk considering transmission modes. Only direct or indirect contact can cause transmission. Contact with dead animals that succumbed to the disease is a sure way to contract it.

Workers in ports, airlines and those coming into contact with travelers should be cautious when dealing with returning passengers. The danger lies in exposure from a person who displays full blown signs. This contact may happen on the ground or in the air. Every traveler is required to report to the agency in case he or she experiences conditions similar to Ebola.

The best protective measure is knowledge of prevention and control measures. People at risk should understand transmission and spread patterns and conditions. Immediate medical attention should be sort whenever a person is suspected to be infected. Travelers returning from infested areas should be monitored for twenty one days.




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