No Ebola in UAE: health ministry

Dubai: The UAE is free of the Ebola virus disease, according to the Ministry of Health which says it is taking all preventive and precautionary measures in line with World Health Organisation (WHO) regulations to keep the disease at bay.

Dr Ameen Al Amiri, Assistant Undersecretary of the Ministry for Public Health Policies and Licensing and ministry spokesman, said, “The UAE is free from Ebola disease, which has been reported in a number of African countries,” adding that the ministry, health institutions and other competent authorities, including the National Crisis and Emergency Management Authority (NCEMA), are taking all precautionary measures.

He said that the ministry is in contact with the WHO so as to be kept posted with the latest developments.

Dr Al Amiri reiterated that the procedures taken so far are sufficient to protect the country, ruling out the entry of any Ebola case into the country.

The ministry, in coordination with the competent authorities, is implementing all the resolutions of the last WHO meeting with the countries where Ebola has been detected, to prevent the entry of the disease into the country. Dr Al Amiri stressed that the UAE is prepared to deal with any case from abroad.

Meanwhile, Greg Hartl, WHO Spokesperson Coordinator, News, Social Media and Monitoring Department of Communications Director-General’s Office World Health Organisation, Geneva, told Gulf News that countries that are not in West Africa have been advised to be in a state of preparedness.

“We do not want the general public to fear the Ebola virus, but we want the health authorities of these countries to be on high alert. If by a long shot any passenger transiting through their country shows symptoms of Ebola then a travel and health history of the patient needs to be taken. If the passenger has indeed visited an Ebola-affected country in West Africa then such a passenger needs to be put in precautionary isolation. The chances of this occurring are very small, so we do not want the people at large to be doing anything. Just the health authorities should be well informed and be able to take instant steps in case they suspect any person visiting their country display any Ebola-like symptoms,” he said.

According to the information issued by the WHO, Ebola, which is so far contained in some remote villages of Central and West Africa near the tropical rain forests, is a haemorrhagic fever where the coagulation mechanism of the body gets impaired and a person can begin to bleed from any part of the body such as the eyes, nose, and ears. Internal bleeding also occurs and the platelet count goes down, eventually resulting in death in most cases. Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans. EVD outbreaks have a case fatality rate of up to 90 per cent.

The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission. Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are considered to be the natural host of the Ebola virus.

Infectious disease specialists point out those infected with the virus usually display muscle weakness, bodyache, severe headache, sore throat, nausea and vomiting initially that spirals into kidney and liver failure and haemorrhaging internally or from the nose, eyes, mouth or ears.

In the absence of a cure, the best treatment available is symptomatic which includes quarantining the patient and giving him blood products and blood transfusion to correct the low platelet count, providing antibiotic treatment for sore throat and other secondary infections, and hydrating the patient who may lose fluids through vomiting, among other things.