Ministry Of Health Monitoring Ebola Outbreak

August 8, 2014

The Ministry of Health, Seniors and Environment said they are “continuing to monitor, prepare for and prevent local occurrences of Ebola, following verification yesterday from the World Health Organization [WHO]  that the Ebola situation is being classified as a public health emergency.”

The Ministry confirmed that there have been no cases in Bermuda and that “inter-ministerial and multi-sectorial communication is ongoing locally to coordinate Ebola preparedness.”

WHO describes the disease by saying, “Ebola virus disease [formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever] is a severe, often fatal illness, with a case fatality rate of up to 90%. It is one of the world’s most virulent disease.”

In their latest statement issued today [Aug 8], the WHO said, “As of 4 August 2014, countries have reported 1,711 cases [1,070 confirmed, 436 probable, 205 suspect], including 932 deaths. This is currently the largest EVD outbreak ever recorded.”

“It was the unanimous view of the Committee that the conditions for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern have been met,” the organisation added.

The full statement from Bermuda’s Health Ministry is below:

The Ministry of Health, Seniors and Environment would like to advise the public that the Ministry is continuing to monitor, prepare for and prevent local occurrences of Ebola, following verification yesterday from the World Health Organization [WHO]  that the Ebola situation is being classified as a public health emergency.

The Ministry can confirm that there have been no cases in Bermuda and that inter-ministerial and multi-sectorial communication is ongoing locally to coordinate Ebola preparedness. Updates on the situation will be posted regularly to website: www.health.gov.bm.

The Ministry remains in close communication with their international and regional public health advisors and, as such, the Ministry can advise that it is following the latest advice from the World Health Organization [WHO].

Bermuda has taken action on these recommendations over the past few days and will make further progress in the coming weeks. Current recommendations include that there be no general ban on international travel and trade. However, travelers are advised as always to stay up to date with regard to international Travel Advisories and Alerts posted on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] website: www.cdc.gov/travel.

Ebola is one of numerous Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers [HF]. It is a severe, often fatal disease in humans and nonhuman primates [such as monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees].

When an infection does occur in humans, there are several ways in which the virus can be transmitted to others. These include direct contact with the blood or other body fluids of an infected person or exposure to objects (such as needles) that have been contaminated with infected body fluids

The viruses that cause Ebola HF are often spread through families and friends because they come in close contact with infectious secretions when caring for ill persons.

Symptoms of Ebola HF typically include:
• Fever
• Headache
• Joint and muscle aches
• Weakness
• Diarrhea
• Vomiting
• Stomach pain
• Lack of appetite

Symptoms may appear anywhere from 2 to 21 days after exposure to Ebola virus, though 8-10 days is most common. It is not always possible to identify patients with Ebola HF early because initial symptoms may be non-specific. For this reason, health-care workers apply standard precautions consistently with all patients – regardless of their diagnosis.

Standard treatment for Ebola HF is still limited to supportive therapy to help relieve symptoms.

In the past, all cases of acquired illness or death have occurred in Africa, including:
• Democratic Republic of the Congo [DRC]
• Gabon
• South Sudan
• Ivory Coast
• Uganda
• Republic of the Congo [ROC]
• South Africa [imported]

The current outbreak involves Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.

Travelers could be infected if they come into contact with blood or body fluids from someone who is sick or has died from Ebola, sick wildlife, or meat from an infected animal. Health care providers caring for Ebola patients and family and friends in close contact with an ill person are at highest risk because they may come into contact with blood or body fluids.

The public is advised to avoid nonessential travel to locations where an outbreak of Ebola is occurring.

If you must travel to these destinations, please make sure to do the following:

• Practice careful hygiene. Avoid contact with blood and body fluids.
• Do not handle items that may have come in contact with an infected person’s blood or body fluids.
• Avoid funeral or burial rituals that require handling the body of someone who has died from Ebola.
• Avoid contact with animals (such as primates, rodents, bats and livestock) or with raw meat. Avoid eating primates, bats and other “bushmeat.”
• Avoid hospitals where Ebola patients are being treated.
• Seek medical care immediately if you develop fever, headache, achiness, sore throat, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, rash, or red eyes.

If you become ill after travelling to a country where there are cases of Ebola Virus, you should delay further travel until cleared by a doctor or public health authority. Seek medical care immediately if you develop fever, headache, achiness, sore throat, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, rash, or red eyes up to 21 days after your return. Tell the doctor about your recent travel and your symptoms before you go to the office or emergency room. Advance notice will help the doctor care for you and protect other people who may be in the office.

The Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit in the Ministry of Health, Seniors and Environment regularly monitors communicable diseases and syndromes that may impact our community, both locally [through reports from physicians, clinics, and the hospital, etc] and globally [through the Caribbean Public Health Agency [CARPHA], the Pan American Health Organization [PAHO] and the World Health Organization [WHO]. These methods allow for early detection and appropriate response to unusual events and outbreaks of disease such as Ebola.

Regular updates on Ebola preparedness efforts in Bermuda will be posted on the government website www.health.gov.bm and Facebook page

Read More About

Category: All, News

Comments (21)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Keepin' it Real!...4Real! says:

    What you’re NOT being told: http://scgnews.com/ebola-what-youre-not-being-told

  2. Truth is killin' me... says:

    I suggest to the Premier and all members of the Health Dept. to read “The Hot Zone” by Richard Preston. Ebola should not to be taken lightly this time around. It is only a plane ride away and by the time you find out it’s here it will be too late. Educate yourself.

  3. bc says:

    Bermudians are so shallow…1 single comment on an actual “issue”…let someone steal a steak from the store and there are 50 comments lol. Losers thrive on negativity…shame bermuda for being just plain dumb and ignorant…

    • Tricks are For Kids says:

      I personally don’t care what people “Choose” to comment on as that is THEIR choice….Just noting however that YOU have not commented on the article either… your comment is just tearing down others who haven’t commented either….however with THAT out of the way;

      My question as it relates to this article is what is the contingency plan should this illness make its way here? I just see an article of symptoms, how it can be contracted and what to tell your doctor if you feel that you are infected? Bermuda is a small island and if the disease were to reach our shores that would not be a good thing….What is the plan? Is a section of the hospital going to be sectioned off as surely if someone was to fall “ill” they would be quanrantined…..I would like to know the steps that are being taken BEFORE hand instead of everyone running around all “willy nilly” if someone were to fall ill as THAT would be a disaster…..

  4. it's possible says:

    There are shipping channels that go by Bermuda; having originated from Africa. They do drop off injured crew to Bermuda. It would be possible for someone infected get sick and dropped off in Bermuda.

  5. Tom says:

    Way to scare the crap out of me ministry of health smh!

  6. Local Yokle says:

    I wonder if staff who work at the airport have been given any advice or information regarding this outbreak of the Ebola virus. My understanding is that they have not. It is all well and good having high level discussions but the information must be communicated down to those who face the greatest risk of exposure from an infected traveler arriving at the airport.

  7. Well I am not suprised ref;- Monrovia /Liberia vice ducumentary on utube ,Somalia,congo,sierra leon etc, these lot are dining apon the poor dead departed like country folk to road kill 75% of Liberia has eaten human flesh raw or cooked ,and there are utube afrikan sex practices on utube I really don’t feal are appropriate to mention here see for yourself .Haiti is pretty bad too.My point is these lot are sooooooo stupid they are attacking hospitals and aid workers trying to help…….this is just getting worse….and U.N. has given up….they are leaving in the next year…..they are leaving because the people don’t listen,and are getting worse….they regress easier than they improve …..so they regress more redily …i guess….go Liberia vice on U tube, people are flopping out in the street and dying some avoid them and refuse to help, some eat their corpse,and some attack aid workers trying to help……what is amazing to me is …there are still people that want to help!

  8. What we should do is ban all flight to and from afrika!

  9. That would be the only sensible course of action.

  10. Get tynes bay ready, your going to have to burn the bodies!

  11. wake up! says:

    I like most follow the news and in my opinion and only that ! it is probably now time to request help from the uk as far as having a floating hospital to care for any and all sick crew from ships that can end up on our shores as well as the lamb foggo clinic in my opinion should be set up exclusively for the use of ailing airline passengers and crew as a first point of entry giving`location and should also be a point first point of contact for any returning resident within a three week period. to cut down the probability of a massive spread of the disease.maybe it is scare mongoring but from what little can be seen in the news when a sick crew member arrives from a ship at the first point of contact with the paramedics and ferry crew who sometimes go out to collect the sick on top of the sometimes busy emergency room you could be looking at the spread of this in at least eight households before reaching the hospital plus! this is all without presedent and should the floating hospital only be a temp @ that one can only hope for the best.and should Bermuda encounter just one case it would kill all form of foreign investment starting from the tourist at leat in the short term! sars,swine flu , never made it here but had they ?where would we be? again just an opinion!!!!!!!!!

  12. Come On Man says:

    This is not an attack on Bernews. They is not Bernews. What they are not telling you is Ebola can spread through the air, however the corporate media has continued to misrepresent the vectors of transmission. This shoddy reporting is most likely getting people killed right now, and may in fact put all of humanity. What is happening is large droplets; they can stay in the air, but not long; they don’t go far. But they can be absorbed in the airway, and this is how the infection starts, because there is a lot of evidence in the lungs of non-human primates that the virus got in that way.”Translation: Ebola IS an airborne virus.

    • Truth is killin' me... says:

      If a healthy person were placed on the other side of a room from a person who was sick with AIDS, the AIDS virus would not be able to drift across the room through the air and infect the healthy person. But Ebola had drifted across a room. It had moved quickly, decisively, and by an unknown route. Most likely the control monkeys inhaled it into their lungs. “It got there somehow,” Nancy Jaax would say to me as she told me the story some years later. “Monkeys spit and throw stuff. And when the caretakers wash the cages down with water hoses, that can create an aerosol of droplets. It probably traveled through the air in aerosolized secretion. That was when I knew that Ebola can travel through the air.”

  13. Truth is killin' me... says:

    It is ok to be scared…it just might save your life! Sometimes when a Government downplays a situation to avoid panic it is at the detriment of it’s own people.

  14. Come On Man says:

    A Government being honest and open to the people in order to help them prepare in the proper manner can save lives.

  15. Come On Man says:

    CORRECTION. A Government being honest, open and supplying the true and correct information can save life’s. No matter what the circumstances may be or the outcome.

  16. in the news says:

    Okay, plane just diverted someone here according to bernews 9pm tonight, how/ what treatment/protection for kemh staff/passengers enroute to Jersey -any/ whats the precautions for everyone ?

    • Local Yokle says:

      The staff who work at the airport have been given no guidance or advice from supervisors. Nobody from the Health Department have spoken directly to them or provided staff with sound medical advice. Lack of information can contribute to rumors, misinformation and panic. The blame lays squarely on management of the various agencies at the ports of entry for not taking this seriously and not displaying leadership.

      • Local Yokle says:

        Lol the person disliking this must be a supervisor of one of the agencies that work at the airport! Truth hurts?

  17. Sheila Marshall says:

    Lol sounds like a bad case of the flu!