The government today said all precautions are being taken across the country in view of the outbreak of the Ebola virus disease in West Africa. Making a statement in the Lok Sabha, Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said while the risk of Ebola virus cases in India is low, preparedness measures are in place to deal with any case of imported virus.
He said states and union territories are being requested to identify nodal officers and designate hospitals with isolation wards for responding to any possible cases.
The Health Minister said, in view of the reports of outbreak of the Ebola virus disease in four countries of West Africa — Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria — it is recommended that non-essential travel to these countries be deferred till such time that the situation is brought under control.
He said there is no vaccine or curative therapy for the disease. He said the outbreak can be contained through early detection and isolation of cases, contact tracing and monitoring, and following rigorous procedures for infection control, if such cases were to report in the country.
The Minister, however, said the risk of transmission to countries outside the African region is low. As a matter of abundant precaution, the government is obtaining details of travellers originating or transiting from Ebola virus- affected countries to India from the concerned airlines and Indian Missions and tracking these persons after their arrival in India upto their final destination in the country.
The Health Minister said he reviewed yesterday, the status of the situation on precautions and preventive measures to be taken by the government. Giving details about the virus, Dr Vardhan said the Ebola virus disease is a severe, often fatal illness with a case fatality rate of up to 90 per cent.
He said in Africa, fruit bats are known to carry the virus from whom animals like chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys, forest antelopes get infected.He said humans get the infection either from the infected animals or from infected humans when they come in close contact with infected body fluids or body secretions. However, there is no airborne transmission.
He said during the current outbreak, most of the disease has spread through human-to-human transmission. The Minister said the incubation period of the Ebola virus is 2 to 21 days, during which the affected persons are not infective.
The Minister tabled the statement on the table of the House as opposition members continued to raise slogans demanding a discussion on the rising incidents of communal violence.
