S. Sudan takes precautionary anti-Ebola measures

Thursday, April 03, 2014
JUBA – The South Sudanese government is taking a raft of precautionary measures to avoid an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, which has already claimed several lives in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
"Together with the World Health Organization (WHO), we are monitoring the situation closely," Health Minister Riek Gai Kok told a Thursday press conference.
"We have also instituted an interstate taskforce and a response team in case of an outbreak," he said.
"We are strengthening all the health facilities in the country and sending medical supplies to the facilities," Kok added.
The minister has also announced the establishment of an Ebola clinic at the Juba Teaching Hospital.
"The WHO has provided personal protective equipment and body bags," he said.
The Ebola virus, a form of hemorrhagic fever, was detected in January in the hinterlands of Guinea.
According to the Guinean Health Ministry, 78 of the 122 cases of suspected Ebola have resulted in fatalities. The ministry added, however, that only 22 of those fatalities had been officially confirmed as Ebola.
Last week, six people succumbed to the virus in Liberia, while five other deaths were registered in Sierra Leone.
Senegal, meanwhile, has closed its southern border with Guinea as a preventive measure.
Ivory Coast, for its part, has set up epidemiological surveillance centers along its borders to monitor new arrivals, especially those coming from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Ebola is a contagious disease for which there is no known treatment or cure.
According to the WHO, the virus, which has a fatality rate of some 90 percent, tends to cause severe viral hemorrhagic fever. It is transmitted through close contact with the bodily fluids – such as sweat, blood or saliva – of an infected person or animal.
The tropical fever first appeared in 1976 in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is named after the Ebola River, which runs close to the Congolese town of Yambuku – the site of the first documented case of the virus.
-Bad habits-
Health Minister Kok stressed that no Ebola cases had been reported in the country so far.
"We are working with our partners like the WHO to monitor the situation in all places, including rebel-held areas," he said.
Dr. Abdinasir Abubakar, an epidemiologist at the WHO's Juba office, underlined the need to adopt precautionary measures in a country like South Sudan, which has long and porous borders.
"There's a need to inform the country, since the borders are open and flights into the country from different parts of the world are there every day, also taking into [account] that Ebola cannot be tested easily," Abubakar told Thursday's press conference.
He went on to recall that the first ever-case of Ebola had been recorded in South Sudan.
"Historically, the first Ebola case ever was diagnosed in the area of Western Equatoria State in 1974," the epidemiologist said.
"One case of Ebola can have a very huge impact. Because of the outbreak, every country has been asked to take precautionary measures," he added.
Kok, for his part, warned that certain behavior among local communities posed a risk to public health, especially where Ebola was concerned.
"In South Sudan, it's an open secret that people eat dead game meat; some cultures eat monkeys," he said. "That's why we need to tell people to stop eating game that has died mysteriously."