24-hour emergency helpline set up to fight Ebola threat.... No Ebola case in India, no need for panic: Harsh Vardhan

ENS, | New Delhi | August 9, 2014: The Centre on Friday announced opening a 24-hour emergency helpline centre in a bid to thwart threat from Ebola virus after the World Health Organisation issued a global health alert due to the EVD outbreak. The emergency centre will be operational from Saturday.

The WHO in its official declaration said that the outbreak of Ebola disease virus (EVD) in a few west African nations was the “most complex outbreak leading to public health emergency”.

In Delhi, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital has been identified for treatment and management of any case of EVD.

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, however, said there was no reported case in India and one traveller, who landed in New Delhi on July 20 and was confirmed by the WHO as a case of EVD, was found to be healthy. He had been traced to Dwarka.

“There is no cause for panic. We have put in operation the most advanced surveillance and tracking systems,” he announced. The helpline numbers are (011)-23061469, 3205 and 1302.

Till August 4, the WHO said 1,711 people have been infected, of whom 932 have died. The four countries affected most by the virus are Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.

A mechanism has been worked out in consultation with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Ministry of Home Affairs for information on travellers to India from the affected countries.

Flight passengers have been asked to declare through health cards their movement in the recent past and their addresses in India. Surveillance has also being strengthened at the sea ports.

Estimated 47,000 Indians in the affected countries were being contacted by the Indian missions and supplied all didactic material so as to create awareness about prevention and self-reporting measures.

No Ebola case in India, no need for panic: Harsh Vardhan

Health Minister Harsh Vardhan

PTI | August 8, 2014: Amid global concern over spread of deadly Ebola epidemic which has been declared an international health emergency by WHO, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday said there is no reported case of the virus in the country and the government is taking all precautions.

“As of today, this moment, there is no Ebola case reported in India. There is no need to panic,” he said.

The Minister said government was taking all precautions well in advance and keeping a close watch on the movement of

people into India from countries affected by the virus.

In the light of the outbreak of Ebola virus in west African countries, government had earlier this week announced a slew of steps including screening and tracking of passengers originating or transiting from there, and asked Indians to defer non-essential travel to that region.

There are close to 45,000 Indians in affected countries.

If the situation worsens in these countries, there could be possibility of Indians staying there travelling back to India, Vardhan had recently said in Parliament.

Mandatory self reporting by the passengers coming from or transiting through the affected countries would be required at

immigration check, Vardhan had said, adding in-flight announcements regarding this would also be made by the airlines.

The WHO on Friday declared the killer Ebola epidemic ravaging parts of west Africa an international health emergency and

appealed for global aid to help afflicted countries.

The WHO move comes as US health authorities yesterday admitted that Ebola’s spread beyond west Africa was “inevitable”, and after medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned that the deadly virus was now “out of control” with more than 60 outbreak hotspots.

WHO declares Ebola epidemic a global emergency 

PTI, Geneva | August 8, 2014: The World Health Organisation on Friday declared the killer Ebola epidemic ravaging parts of west Africa an international health emergency and appealed for global aid to help afflicted countries.

The decision after a two-day emergency session behind closed doors in Geneva means global travel restrictions may be put in place to halt its spread as the overall death toll nears 1,000.

The WHO move comes as US health authorities om Thursday admitted that Ebola’s spread beyond west Africa was “inevitable”, and after medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned that the deadly virus was now “out of control” with more than 60 outbreak hotspots.

WHO director Dr Margaret Chan appealed for greater international aid for the countries worst hit by the outbreak, which she described as the most serious in four decades, echoing an earlier claim by MSF that the “epidemic is unprecedented in terms of geographical distribution, people infected and deaths”.

States of emergency were in effect across overwhelmed west African nations, including Libera, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Soldiers in Liberia’s Grand Cape Mount province – one of the worst-affected areas – set up road blocks to limit travel

to the capital Monrovia, as bodies reportedly lay unburied in the city’s streets.

Two towns in the east of Sierra Leone, Kailahun and Kenema, where put under quarantine on Thursday, as nightclubs and entertainment venues across the country were ordered shut.

Public sector doctors in Nigeria suspended a month-long strike with fears rising that the virus is taking hold in sub- Saharan Africa’s most populous country. The deadly disease has already killed two and infected five others in Lagos.

Ebola has claimed at least 932 lives and infected more than 1,700 people since breaking out in Guinea earlier this year, according to the WHO.

Ebola causes severe fever and, in the worst cases, unstoppable bleeding. It is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids, and people who live with or care for patients are most at risk.

First discovered in 1976 and named after a river in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ebola has killed around two-thirds of those infected, with two outbreaks registering fatality rates approaching 90 per cent. The latest outbreak has a fatality rate of around 55 per cent.