KARACHI: The World Health Organisation has provided 15 sets of protective gear to the provincial government to use them in case the health authorities are exposed to the deadly Ebola virus that has killed thousands of people in west Africa and affected many others, it emerged on Wednesday.

“We have received 15 kits to protect doctors and paramedics in case they have to deal with an Ebola patient,” said Dr Khalid Shaikh, special secretary for public health in the provincial government while speaking to Dawn.

The protective gear includes gloves, gowns, footwear, goggles and caps which the medical professionals are required to put on before exposing themselves to anyone infected with the virus.

Dr Shaikh said the WHO planned to impart training to the provincial government’s field officials to make them aware of the degree of danger associated with the disease. The Ebola virus has a mortality rate of more than 70 per cent, much higher than the Congo-Crimean haemorrhagic fever and dengue, which strikes the country off and on.

Ebola is spread by a fruit bat, which infects animals and humans alike and its lethality is evident from the fact that many west African nations have declared Ebola emergency where even some medical individuals and teams belonging to the United States and Europe have been affected by the virus.

Officials said since Karachi was the only city with an international airport in the province, the Sindh government had focused on taking preventive measures in the metropolis of over 18 million people susceptible to a major tragedy if preventive measures were not taken.

The provincial government has established two isolation wards to quarantine Ebola patients in the Sindh Services Hospital and the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC).

“We have established isolation wards in the two hospitals as part of the strategy to counter the deadly disease,” said Dr Shaikh.

Similarly, officials said, upon the Sindh government’s request, the federal government had assigned its medical teams to keep in touch with the immigration officials at the Quaid-i-Azam International Airport in Karachi to check everyone who entered the country from any west African country.

“No one was checking this before we formally lodged a request with Islamabad. Now, we have been told that the federal government’s health officials have been assigned to check the passengers, though they are in limited numbers, whose journeys originated from west Africa,” said a Sindh health department official.

An official in the WHO said the fact that a majority of Pakistanis lived in Africa’s eastern parts and their numbers were far small in West Africa had proved to be a blessing in disguise for Pakistan.

“Very few Pakistanis live in west Africa, which meant fewer arrivals from there and this fact goes in favour of the country’s efforts to counter the deadly disease,” said the official.

He, however, said the country should be prepared to respond to any possible threat.

The provincial government admits that it has limited capacity to tackle a threat like Ebola with regard to skilled manpower and equipment. The situation is not much different with the federal government.

The provincial government has already requested Islamabad to install ‘functional’ thermal scanners at airports. However, sources in Islamabad said that two scanners were placed at Karachi airport but one of them had been out of order since the day it had been installed years ago.

“It requires at least Rs1 million to repair the machine,” said an official. He added that sensing the gravity of the situation and the fact that entire world had concentrated its energies and resources to fight the disease, the government had finally decided to fix the equipment.

Officials said that Islamabad was also establishing separate counters at airports for the arrivals from west Africa for their medical checkup before formally allowing them to enter the country.

“Our military is already carrying out such an exercise effectively with the peace missions that return from west Africa. The returning troops are quarantined for three weeks for medical examination before they are declared Ebola free. The government should do the same with all the arrivals from those destinations,” said a senior Sindh government official.

Director health Karachi, Dr Zafar Ijaz, said the city health authorities had set up a counter to remain in contact with the airport officials to monitor the proceedings with regard to viral infection.

Awareness seminar

The Pakistan Medical Association organised an awareness session for the medical fraternity to impart information on how they could protect them from the deadly Ebola virus.

Dr Afia Zafar, an expert on infectious diseases who worked at the Aga Khan University, gave a talk on the preventive measures for the medical fraternity because in the event of coming face to face with the disease doctors and paramedics would be at the touching distance from the virus.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2014