Can India Tackle Possible Ebola Invasion?

BANGALORE: Another recent Ebola case in the U.S. raised  alarm in many Indian health institutions and experts revealed that they are not prepared well enough to tackle such a possible outbreak.

India has been thoroughly screening passengers arriving from West Africa for fever and other signs of sickness at Delhi and other international airports. Considering the poor standards of Indian security, it is however, unclear how effective these screenings prove to be.

The country's state of public health is certainly the reason for concern. If the epidemic breaks into Indian soil, it could well become a virulent disease with the combined problems of ill administered health systems,  inadequate monitoring, and tracking mechanisms. It is also not practical to reach out and attend to remote areas in a short time within which the consequences of the outbreak could be devastating.

The fact that India has one nurse per 1,000 people, as per the 2010 World Bank data, is threatening. U.S has 10 nurses for every 1,000 people. Most of the doctors and nurses here seldom wear protective gloves, which ought to be a mandatory practice, and nothing can be done to ensure that this is practiced across the country. Already existing malaria, dengue, and other fever-inducing diseases make it complicated to isolate people displaying symptoms of Ebola.

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