KATHMANDU: With a view to spreading information about Ebola virus disease, the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division has decided to begin orientation on Ebola preparedness from tomorrow. It will start from Tribhuvan International Airport.
According to the EDCD, the first orientation to be held at TIA will be attended by 40 security personnel and as many officials from the Department of Immigration. Experts from the EDCD and the World Health Organization and doctors will facilitate the orientation. “The objective the orientation is to provide knowledge to the officials and security personnel about the disease and ways to deal with Ebola suspects and patients,” said Dr Basudev Pandey, virologist at the EDCD, adding that the orientation will be conducted for hospital staff as well. The orientation has been categorized into three levels. General orientation will be for hospital staff. Doctors and nurses providing services in the ICU will go through orientation on waste management and nursing care. The laboratory staff will be oriented on collection, handling and transport of samples. “Hospital orientation is expected to start next week,” he added. The hospital orientation will begin from Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital, Teku.
Officials have also planned to conduct orientation programmers at government and private hospitals with ICU facilities in the Valley. At the hospitals, the orientation will be held on epidemiology, symptom management and infection prevention.
Dr Arjun Karki, senior physician at Patan Hospital, said, “As Ebola virus disease has become a threat worldwide, the orientation on the matter will help provide knowledge to all concerned about the disease and ways to deal with it.”
Following the health emergency declaration of the disease by the WHO, the government had set up a health desk at TIA on August 17.
The health desks at Kakarbhitta, Kanchanpur, Birgunj and Bhairahawa border points are also screening people coming to Nepal from India. Ebola virus outbreak in four West African Countries — Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone — has killed more than 1,427 people and is spreading slowly across the world.
There is no licensed specific treatment or vaccine available for the disease.
Source: The Himalayan Times
