Bangladesh on close Ebola watch

Bangladesh is closely monitoring the West Africa’s Ebola virus as the World Health Organisation declares the fatal disease as international health emergency.

But the director of the government’s disease monitoring arm, IEDCR, told bdnews24.com that Bangladesh had nothing worry about so long as it remained an “unaffected” country.

“We are observing the situation,” Prof Mahmudur Rahman said on Friday, as WHO termed the virus attack an “extraordinary event” posing an international health risk.

The Ebola viral disease, formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe illness, and, according to WHO, one of world’s most virulent ailments with a 90 percent fatality rate.

In the current West African outbreak, the majority of cases have occurred due to human-to-human transmission.

The virus passes on by direct contact through broken skin or mucous membranes with the blood, or other bodily fluids or secretions like stool, urine, saliva, and semen of infected people.

WHO says the disease has no proven cures and there is no vaccine to prevent infection. So, treatment focuses on alleviating symptoms such as fever, vomiting and diarrhoea - all of which can contribute to severe dehydration.

Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's head of health security, stressed that, with the Ebola spread could be stopped with the right measures to deal with infected people.

“This is not a mysterious disease. This is an infectious disease that can be contained,” he told reporters in Geneva, where the UN agency is headquartered, reported to Reuters.

“It is not a virus that is spread through the air.”

IEDCR Director Prof Mahmudur Rahman

Fukuda said anyone known to have Ebola should be immediately isolated and treated and kept in isolation for 30 days as scientific studies showed that infected people can shed the virus by then.

The current outbreak, in which at least 1,711 people have so far been infected, of whom 932 have died, is said to be the most severe in almost the 40 years since Ebola was identified in humans.

WHO said this was partly because of weak the health systems in the currently affected countries, lacking in human, financial and material resources.

The IEDCR director, however, is optimistic about Bangladesh’s capacity to contain the virus, if it comes to Bangladesh.

“We believe that we have such capacity right now,” Prof Rahman, who is also a WHO expert on polio which is also an international health emergency, said.

He said, every year, Bangladesh faces an outbreak of nipah virus attack having a fatality rate as high as Ebola’s.

“We have our own surveillance system and proper management plan to identify any new virus as quickly as possible,” he said.

He, however, said Bangladesh, which was home to WHO-accredited laboratories for different types of virus detection, did not have an Ebola diagnostic facility right now.

“We are trying to have the facility the earliest,” he said, adding that the IEDCR had collaborations with international centres having the facility.

“We can send samples for testing if we want,” he said.

The Inter Services Public Relations earlier said all the Bangladeshi peacekeepers were free of Ebola infection since its outbreak in West Africa.

It also said that the Bangladesh Armed Forces was closely monitoring the situation and were in constant touch with all concerned including the UN.

WHO has advised countries where the virus has not spread so far not to impose any “general ban on international travel or trade”.

It also advised states to provide travellers to Ebola-affected and at-risk areas with “relevant information on risks, measures to minimize those risks, and advice for managing a potential exposure”.