STOP EBOLA!

The world has stiffened in the face of another apocalypse. As swine flu and bird flu once raged across the planet, so is the world now feverish with Ebola. But this virus has been found much more dangerous and deadly and, given the glo-balization and the natural traffic of people between states, no-one can feel insured and absolutely safe. What measures is our state taking and how is it going to protect its citizens? 

Somewhere nearby?

Information available on the web is growing proportionally to the death toll. One month ago, data on the virus in faraway African lands did not arouse much concern. Now the threat is coming nearer. It is predicted that infected people will appear in Russia as early as 24 October. In neighbouring Georgia, several dozen people who arrived from African countries (mainly students, one of them is a Georgian national who worked in Liberia) have been placed under supervision but not as in-patients. By this moment, 86 potentially dangerous people have been examined but no characteristic symptoms were found in any of them. Meanwhile an action mechanism has been worked out for suspicious cases: people having arrived from Western Africa will be put on register and then the condition of potential patients is monitored during the virus incubation period supposedly lasting 21 days. This kind of a system looks quite formal and prophylactic. 

This situation cannot but alarm our citizens, too, but on the whole the plan of measures being taken looks fairly serious. Thus for instance, as R+ reported earlier, the anti-plague station under the Health Ministry has set up a hotline in connection with the Ebola virus. Efforts are being prepared to keep the population informed on the virus and people suspected to be infected, said Saiq Qurbanov, deputy director of the station. However, according to the deputy director, there is no special threat that the Ebola virus may appear in Azerbaijan as we have rather weak contacts with countries where the disease has been registered. If there are any students or tourists from Africa here, their number is only a few people. The quarantine inspectorate has tightened up control at the checkpoints. The arrivals have a temperature taken and undergo a health check. Considering the three-week incubation period, it is prescribed for visitors to be examined every day by a doctor at the nearest polyclinic to their place of residence. 

Saiq Qurbanov also told R+ that the Ebola virus hotline (5303213) is already receiving lots of calls. "Many people are in a panic because information on the virus is coming to us on a one-way basis: they are calling to say that they are running a temperature and feeling ill. We explain it to them that one cannot catch the disease unless they have been outside this country or in contact with diseased foreigners. In addition, many forget that Ebola is not an airborne virus and can be contracted solely through a sick person's excretions, fluids and things. 

The main means of prevention is personal hygiene. Cholera, for instance, is a very dangerous disease but you can protect yourself from it if you do not drink raw water and regularly wash your hands before meals. The same applies to Ebola. But in any event, the deputy director of the station advises that every person who feels anxiety should call the hotline.

All risks

According to the Health Ministry, there is no special risk of the Ebola virus penetrating into Azerbaijan. All preventive efforts and tightened-up border control are of a prophylactic nature. One of the main factors of the disease is contact with animals. But, fortunately, we have no economic relations with countries where the disease is widespread and no farm produce is purchased there, the press service of the Ministry of Agriculture has told R+. "We are permanently monitoring information coming in from the World Health Organization," the press service said. "In addition, we have suspended purchases of animal products from countries where even isolated cases of the disease have been registered". According to Viktor Qasimov, head of the Sanitary Epidemiological Sector at the Health Ministry, special wards for suspected virus carriers have been arranged at the Research Institute for Phthisiology and Pulmonology. According to him, the Health Ministry has taken every preparatory measure to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus. "There is no specific therapy for this virus," Viktor Qasimov said, "but we have every medicine for symptomatic treatment, for the most up-to-date systematic treatment of the virus". 

Apart from this, the ministry representative said, it was suggested that infrared imagers - devices spotting increased temperature in the body - should be installed at border crossing points. According to available data, a number of such devices are already being installed. 

Abbas Valibayov, the chief health officer of this country, has signed an order to step up preventive and anti-epidemic efforts and to hinder the pe-netration of the Ebola virus into Azerbaijan. The same order assigns special tasks to the heads of health services and centres for hygiene and epidemiology. 

Although a panic among the townsfolk is inevitable. Sevil Mammadova working at a travel agency said the following: "I frequently travel abroad and contact tourists. I am certainly interested in matters related to preventive measures against the Ebola virus." Another woman re-sident in the city said: "I was recently coming back from a foreign trip and I didn't notice any special control. We were all in one queue with Afro-Americans and dark-skinned Arabs; every sneeze in the queue made us dash aside." 

Many people abroad are unhappy with how their health institutions are prepared. "Thus for instance, people arriving in the United Kingdom only have the temperature taken and get a questionnaire to point out if they have been in contact with diseased people. But is there any guarantee that they will write the truth?" said our compatriot who recently returned from a business trip. "As to fever, it can be subdued aboard the plane so that no screening test can show anything."

At this moment, amid a stream of varied emotions possessing our residents, one can only rely on the Health Ministry's assurances that every precaution has been taken.