Health Council warns against traveling to Ebola-hit nations
The Supreme Council of Health (SCH) has warned Qataris and residents against travel to Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria, all of which have suffered Ebola outbreaks. The recommendation is valid until further notice.
Those who need to travel to these countries should follow strict infection prevention and control measures, the SCH said in a statement yesterday.
Travellers should wash their hands, avoid direct contact with the blood and other body fluids of others, use personal protective equipment, avoid skin-piercing instruments and practise safe hygienic measures.
The SCH again confirmed that there was no suspected or confirmed case of Ebola in Qatar as of yesterday.
The SCH is engaged in local, regional and international contacts as part of preparations to participate in a GCC meeting on Ebola in Riyadh on August 13. The meeting aims to put in place precautionary measures to protect Gulf citizens in the event of an outbreak of Ebola.
In a scheduled expanded meeting tomorrow, officials from the SCH, Hamad Medical Corporation, Primary Health Care Corporation, Qatar Airways, Qatar Petroleum, the Ministry of Interior, and the Army will discuss potential Ebola outbreak scenarios and the appropriate preventive and control measures to be taken.
The department of public health in the SCH has been following reports of Ebola spreading across several countries in West Africa since March 21, 2014. The total number of cases reported to WHO as of August 4 was 1,603, with 887 of the patients dying.
The SCH has started internal meetings and consultations aimed at assessing the risk potential and the appropriate measures required to prevent any suspected case outside Qatar arriving in the country.
It has been agreed to wait for the outcome of the meeting of the Emergency Committee convened by the WHO Director-General regarding the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa. On Friday, the WHO declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa a public health emergency of international concern.
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After eating eating at the Noodle House restaurant in Landmark, I looked like that man in the top left of the picture, and then the bottom left pic 20 minutes later. I am surprised that QL allows a picture of a man's bum gushing diarrhea from it. Yuk!