http://www.nj.com/healthfit/index.s...er_outbreak_alarmed_about_current_spread.html
Imagine Tomislav Prvulovic?s quandry. He has spent a lifetime fighting Ebola, and what he sees out of Africa has him frustrated.
"He cannot sleep at night," said his wife, Zivka. When her husband, an infectious-disease expert who fought the virus in Central Africa in the late 1980s, watches the news about this latest outbreak, he gets so upset he nearly cries, she said.
He has specific suggestions on ways the authorities can help contain the deadly virus. But so far the only person who has paid attention has been his 12-year-old neighbor, a budding newscaster who posted an interview with him on YouTube.
If the severe steps Prvulovic mentions are taken, he says, the largest-ever Ebola outbreak can be halted.
snip
"Don?t consider it someone else?s headache. We?re just one flight away from the epicenter of Ebola," he reminds anyone who will listen.
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To try to stem the spread of Ebola, officials have imposed quarantines and travel restrictions on the sick and those in contact with them, sometimes shutting off entire villages and counties.
Authorities have struggled to treat and isolate the sick, in part because of widespread fear that treatment centers are places where people go to die. Many sick people have hidden in their homes, relatives have sometimes taken their loved ones away from health centers, and mobs have occasionally attacked health workers.
Prvulovic was part of the international team that eradicated small pox decades ago, and worked in 50 countries over a long career that included fighting the plague as well. He was trained as a doctor in his native Serbia, then earned a master?s in public health in the United States.
"We're just one flight away from the epicenter of Ebola."
He worries that the precautions only now being imposed are too little, too late. Given his firsthand view of lethal infectious diseases, here?s what he?d like to shout from the rooftop of his West Orange townhouse:
? African authorities should cordon off any hospital treating an Ebola victim, using police or the military if necessary. No relatives allowed in to visit, no health workers allowed out. Any item that goes out of the hospital ? clothes, equipment, garbage ? needs to be burned. Bodies of the deceased should be cremated if possible.
? International flights into and out of the affected countries should be banned for all but emergency travel. Forget tourism; now is not the time.
snip
? Global health agencies should hire African doctors from Somalia and the former Zaire ? who have experience with Ebola ? and deploy them in the West African countries which have never seen the deadly virus before.
People in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone need to be educated about the virus in their native languages.
snip
While it doesn?t spread as readily as small pox, it?s much more deadly, Prvulovic points out. Of those who get small pox, 40 percent die. For Ebola, the figure can vary from two-thirds to as high as 90 percent.
snip
"I?m depressed that nobody is doing it right," he said of the efforts now underway in the global crisis. "My wife says, What are you supposed to do? You?re retired."
Imagine Tomislav Prvulovic?s quandry. He has spent a lifetime fighting Ebola, and what he sees out of Africa has him frustrated.
"He cannot sleep at night," said his wife, Zivka. When her husband, an infectious-disease expert who fought the virus in Central Africa in the late 1980s, watches the news about this latest outbreak, he gets so upset he nearly cries, she said.
He has specific suggestions on ways the authorities can help contain the deadly virus. But so far the only person who has paid attention has been his 12-year-old neighbor, a budding newscaster who posted an interview with him on YouTube.
If the severe steps Prvulovic mentions are taken, he says, the largest-ever Ebola outbreak can be halted.
snip
"Don?t consider it someone else?s headache. We?re just one flight away from the epicenter of Ebola," he reminds anyone who will listen.
snip
To try to stem the spread of Ebola, officials have imposed quarantines and travel restrictions on the sick and those in contact with them, sometimes shutting off entire villages and counties.
Authorities have struggled to treat and isolate the sick, in part because of widespread fear that treatment centers are places where people go to die. Many sick people have hidden in their homes, relatives have sometimes taken their loved ones away from health centers, and mobs have occasionally attacked health workers.
Prvulovic was part of the international team that eradicated small pox decades ago, and worked in 50 countries over a long career that included fighting the plague as well. He was trained as a doctor in his native Serbia, then earned a master?s in public health in the United States.
"We're just one flight away from the epicenter of Ebola."
He worries that the precautions only now being imposed are too little, too late. Given his firsthand view of lethal infectious diseases, here?s what he?d like to shout from the rooftop of his West Orange townhouse:
? African authorities should cordon off any hospital treating an Ebola victim, using police or the military if necessary. No relatives allowed in to visit, no health workers allowed out. Any item that goes out of the hospital ? clothes, equipment, garbage ? needs to be burned. Bodies of the deceased should be cremated if possible.
? International flights into and out of the affected countries should be banned for all but emergency travel. Forget tourism; now is not the time.
snip
? Global health agencies should hire African doctors from Somalia and the former Zaire ? who have experience with Ebola ? and deploy them in the West African countries which have never seen the deadly virus before.
People in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone need to be educated about the virus in their native languages.
snip
While it doesn?t spread as readily as small pox, it?s much more deadly, Prvulovic points out. Of those who get small pox, 40 percent die. For Ebola, the figure can vary from two-thirds to as high as 90 percent.
snip
"I?m depressed that nobody is doing it right," he said of the efforts now underway in the global crisis. "My wife says, What are you supposed to do? You?re retired."
