THE Environmental Community Health Organisation (ECHO) is calling on the competent authorities to begin an aggressive public education programme on the Ebola virus. 

Moreover, ECHO wants to see airport and other allied staff trained on how to approach such cases; a shared data base among concerned ministries and agencies established, and the competencies and capabilities of environmental and public health bodies enhanced.
“Time is not on our side; we only have today. Let us be more conscious and alert and remember that public health is everybody’s business,” ECHO’s Executive Director Royston King said in a press statement yesterday.
America’s health authorities confirmed a few days ago that they had diagnosed the first patient with Ebola in the United States, thus demonstrating the interconnectedness of the world – the global village.
“We, in Guyana and the Caribbean, ought to be paying very careful attention at what we are doing here and constantly evaluating our own preparedness in the event of the presentation of any signs or symptoms of Ebola by anyone. Indeed, it is a frightening situation particularly in circumstances where we may not have the medical and other technologies and other critical resources to manage any such situation,” the statement said.

PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS

Beyond that, Ebola is spiraling into a sort of global public health crisis. If there is a public health crisis then other sectors of society will be severely affected even collapse.
Looking at it from a global perspective, it would affect international trade and consequently change the landscape of economies, facilitating poverty and poor sanitation, thereby making it more difficult to eradicate the virus. It is a circular situation whose effects could be more debilitating than wars. The activities of humankind are heating up the planet earth.
“Confined primarily to West Africa, sadly, the Ebola outbreak continues to claim lives. This disease is believed to be animal-borne, with fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family acting as the natural Ebola virus hosts. Humans first contracted the virus via contact with bodily fluids of an infected animal, where it was then spread to other humans by contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person.
“Poor sanitation conditions in West Africa coupled with mourners coming into contact with the deceased at burial ceremonies and rituals enabled the disease to spread rapidly,” the statement said.

(Telesha Ramnarine)