Travel Restriction as Ebola Spreads: CDC

By Staff Reporter - 29 Jul '14 04:26AM

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a travel advisory Monday, for U.S. citizens going to West Africa.

"The likelihood of this outbreak spreading beyond West Africa is very low, but it is a rapidly changing situation and the CDC must be prepared for the very remote possibility that sick travellers could bring the disease into the United States", said Stephan Monroe, deputy director of the CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.

A Level 2 notice was issued by CDC to avoid unnecessary travel to the affected countries. The CDC has also listed out symptoms and asked all health officials to look out for the same with patients complaining of similar symptoms.

The regional director in Africa of the World Health Organization on a fact finding mission of the areas said, "The outbreak is beyond each national health sector alone and urged the governments of the affected countries to mobilize and involve all sectors, including civil society and communities, in the response," reported CBC news.

A Liberian official Patrick Sawyer travelled to Nigeria and died of the virus at a Lagos hospital. Fifty nine people including the hospital staff and airport officials are being monitored. The airlines has still to provide a list of the passengers who travelled along with him.

"No doubt, the Ebola virus is a national health problem and as we have also begun to see, it attacks our way of life, with serious economic and social consequences. "President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia said.

President Sirleaf elaborated on the precautions Sunday, after a meeting with a task force to deal with the crisis. She said the new force was to control the virus, which has killed 129 people in the country and more than 670 across the region, CBC news reports

The Ebola virus has spread to 1,201 people and caused 672 deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This is the largest outbreak since March.

There is no known cure for Ebola .This infection shows symptoms like fever, vomiting, diarrhea and internal bleeding. The virus is spread through bodily fluid of the victim.