Doctors, healthcare workers to help combat Ebola outbreak

 

The Ministry of Health is selecting the doctors and healthcare staff for that mission, he added.

The virus has killed 7,588 people as of December 21, the vast majority in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. A total of 666 health-care workers (HCWs) are known to have been infected with the virus up to the end of December 21, 366 of whom have died, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

According to Soe Lwin Nyein, the medical staff will be sent to Liberia and Sierra Leone where the Ebola outbreak is the highest and both countries are urgently in need of 5,000 healthcare workers and nearly 700 doctors. Other Asean countries are also planning to send healthcare workers to West Africa.

“It is not the first time we have sent healthcare workers to other countries. We sent healthcare workers during H5N1 virus outbreak. We will choose the healthcare workers who attended the healthcare programmes related to epidemic in local and overseas countries. We will give additional trainings for those who have been chosen. I cannot tell when they will be sent,” he said. 

The decision to send healthcare workers to West Africa countries was decided at the Asean Ministerial meeting and WHO has also asked for help from other European countries.

The results of the first step of the new vaccine for Ebola Virus in human are satisfactory, according to the WHO.

Medical companies and health agencies are trying to produce drugs and vaccines to cure and prevent Ebola virus. They tried sample tests on twenty adults giving some of them high dose and the rest low dose. They discovered that all of them produced the required immune response to combat Ebola virus, said the American National Health Department in November.

According to AFP, Sierra Leone's government yesterday declared a five-day lockdown in the country's north to step up efforts to contain the Ebola epidemic, while making an exception for Christmas.

"Muslims and Christians are not allowed to hold services in mosques and churches throughout the lockdown except for Christians on Christmas Day (Thursday)," Alie Kamara, resident minister for the Northern Region, told AFP.

Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea are the three nations worst-hit by the epidemic, and Sierra Leone recently overtook Liberia as the country with the highest number of Ebola infections.

According to the latest update from WHO, a total of 19,497 confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) have been reported.

Taking into account the number of cases as a proportion of an affected country’s population, there have been 24 reported cases and 15 reported deaths per 100,000 population in Guinea, 199 cases and 85 deaths per 100,000 population in Liberia, and 157 cases and 45 deaths per 100,000 population in Sierra Leone.