Can Ebola Strike India?


NEW DELHI: Is an overcrowded India with a weak health infrastructure a sitting duck for the kind of Ebola epidemic which has struck four West African countries? Yes, feel medical experts in both the government and the private sector.

Ebola has so far claimed nearly 1,500 lives in the four affected countries of West Africa - Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

"I agree that India being a densely populated country with an overburdened health service, the chances of such an infection spreading fast is very real," union Health Secretary Lov Verma told IANS.

Verma, however, said that luckily Ebola was not an air-borne disease and spread only through bodily fluids. Thus, its spread can be contained with adequate steps. Rajesh Kumar, Consultant Internal Medicine, Paras Hospital,Gurgaon, told IANS: "In India I am sure if there is just one case, it will multiply like anything." He claimed that most doctors in India were not even aware of the symptoms of the disease.

Even the World Health Organisation said that India needs to further strengthen its infection control mechanism and surveillance to prevent an outbreak of Ebola like the one in West Africa. The real source of the threat for India, according to official sources, are the nearly 45,000 Indians living in the Ebola-hit areas. These include about 300 paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) peacekeeping personnel.

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Source: IANS