Ban on health workers’ travel to Ebola-hit nations remains

The Ministry of Health still has a ban in place on health workers traveling to Ebola-hit nations, a leading doctor said here recently.
The ban continues because the disease is highly contagious and health workers are the most likely to be infected if they are involved in treating such patients, said Tamari Al-Tayeb, the doctor who heads the ministry’s Ebola task team.
Al-Tayeb said the ministry has not picked up anyone infected with Ebola in the Kingdom. Health personnel have been deployed to the nation’s land and sea ports so that they can check travelers entering the country, she said.
Several people suspected of having the virus have already been isolated and tested to see whether they are infected. The virus was initially spread from wild animals to people, and then between people, and is thought to have originated in West African countries, she said.
While the Kingdom’s health practitioners are not allowed to travel to these countries, the Saudi government has assisted in fighting the outbreak by sending beds, medication and tents to affected countries, she said.
Health practitioners working in these areas must wear protective clothing when treating infected people because unprotected contact can see them also pick up the virus, said Al-Tayeb.
However, infected patients and health workers can be cured if they get immediate treatment. Health workers must also ensure that they are tested before returning home to their families, she said.
The Ebola virus causes an acute, serious illness which is often fatal if untreated. It first appeared in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks, one in Nzara, Sudan, and the other in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. The latter occurred in a village near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on its website.
“The current outbreak in West Africa, with first cases notified in March 2014, is the largest and most complex Ebola outbreak. There have been more cases and deaths in this outbreak than all others combined. It has also spread between countries starting in Guinea then across land borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia, by air to Nigeria, and by land to Senegal,” the WHO stated.
“The most severely affected countries, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, have very weak health systems, lacking human and infrastructural resources, having only recently emerged from long periods of conflict and instability. On Aug. 8, the WHO director-general declared this outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern,” it stated.
A separate, unrelated Ebola outbreak began in Boende, Equateur, an isolated part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, it stated.
Meanwhile, Mohammad bin Hamid Al-Shelahi, assistant health director for health services, and chairman of the committee researching the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, has refuted reports that five infected people were identified at Madinah Maternity Hospital.
Al-Shilahi said people should not believe reports published on social networking sites until they check them out with the ministry.