A Medical Practitioner, Ramon Moronkola, has revealed that the medical practitioners in Nigeria were concerned with the level at which the Ebola Virus spreads, as the doctors remained the most at risk of contacting the disease.
Dr Moronkola, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, noted that the doctors were liable to get the virus due to contact with patients; through not only physical contact but examination of patients through taking their body fluids and so on.
He warned that the virus, which can be detected in only few laboratories in the country, takes 2 to 21 days before the patient starts showing symptoms and urged health workers to take standard precautions in taking care of every patient.
Moronkola also provided more information about the virus, explaining that an Ebola patient is unlikely to be contagious or infectious within the 2 to 21 days incubation interval, and that patients can only spread the virus if they move around during the period the virus begins to manifest.
Dr Moronkola commended the Ministry of Health for having already started educating the general public in order to contain the spread of the Ebola virus among individuals.
Asked if an infected patient who takes a bath in the stream can infect other users of the stream, the doctor affirmed that the entire community would be at risk of having the virus.
He further advised that other NGO’s should take it as a point of duty to help in spreading the information so that people would be armed with information and not go blindly to the virus.
He advised limited contacts with suspected case of Ebola or with people who have fever. He also recommended the use of hand sensitizers and 70% alcohol.
Dr Moronkola called on Nigerians to imbibe the habit of always washing their hands and the use of disinfectants or to limit the use of public toilets and facilities, adding that the unnecessary consumption of bush meat should also be avoided.
On the strike of the doctors, he believes that it is the duty of public health professionals to ensure that the spread of the virus is contained, since the disease is a public health matter, whether there was a strike or not. He noted that doctors should be appreciated, making reference particularly to the Nigerian doctor who first identified the disease in Nigeria on the Liberian, Patrick Sawyer.
