Recommended Personal Ebola Protection Guidelines

By Lena Stephenson


While the risks of Ebola transmission are low, it is necessary for health workers and families around infected patients to take precautions. The known ways of contracting the disease include direct and physical contact with body fluids like urine, blood, semen, feces and vomit, among others. Ebola protection measures also caution against contact with fluids of a dead victim.

A person who displays symptoms such as high fever, body aches, diarrhea and joint pains should seek a medical evaluation. Another distinct sign is hemorrhaging. Health facilities and doctors isolate suspected and confirmed patients to ensure professional treatment. Early intervention boosts survival chances.

Broken skin and mucus membranes have also been cited as some of the ways the disease is spread. Indirect contact through contaminated blood and body fluids also spread the disease. Contaminated equipment like gloves, goggles, masks and bed linen should be avoided. Male victims who have recovered should avoid sex since semen can transmit the disease up to seven weeks after treatment.

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.

Beyond direct contact, other health risks workers in such areas should look out for include psychological distress, stigma, violence and the stain of long working hours. The protective gear issued is likely to cause excessive heat. Health workers are exposed to dehydration as well as ergonomic challenges from lifting bodies and loads at the facility.

Diseases that display similar symptoms include malaria, cholera, rickettsipsis and typhoid fever. Relapsing hepatitis, viral hemorrhagic fever and shingellosis may be confused with this disease. This calls for qualified medical assistance and attention whenever a person is suspected to have contracted this disease. The facility used must be well equipped and manned by qualified and specialized staff.

When care is provided at home or in ill-equipped facilities the risk grows. This means that home care givers, traditional healers and village midwives who come into contact with infected individuals. Other avenues of contracting the disease include burial rituals and rites that involve direct contact with the body or bodily fluids.

The exposure for business travelers is low despite that fact that they enter infected areas. They are advised against coming into direct contact with secretions and body fluids of victims. Animals that died out of the infection may also transmit the disease.

Crew, workers and travelers should take appropriate measures to avoid contact or transmission. This happens at airports, ports or even on the ground when dealing with infected individuals. Exposure to a person who has manifested full blow symptoms on commercial flight or on other modes of transport should be reported to the transport company immediately.

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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