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The Department of Health (DH) has been closely monitoring overseas outbreaks of Ebola virus disease (EVD), and updated the EVD-affected areas today (September 2) in response to the latest situation reported by Nigeria.
In addition to the previously affected Lagos area, the health authorities of Nigeria reported that three EVD cases were identified in Port Harcourt in that country.
"In view of the latest development, the DH updated the affected areas in the reporting criteria of EVD to include Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria (extended from Lagos to the whole country), Sierra Leone and Equateur Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), while other reporting criteria remained unchanged. The public should avoid unnecessary travel to affected areas. Travel advice will be uploaded to the front page of the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) website (www.chp.gov.hk/en) and the Travel Health Service (THS) website (www.travelhealth.gov.hk/eindex.html), as well as the Outbound Travel Alert website (www.sb.gov.hk/eng/ota) of the Security Bureau," a spokesman for the DH said.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a total of 3 069 cases (including 1 552 deaths) have been reported in the four West African countries, namely Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, as of August 26. Separately, the number of cases reported in another outbreak of EVD in Equateur Province of the DRC remain at 24 cases and 13 deaths.
Locally, prevention and control measures against EVD are well in place, including:
* Strengthened surveillance of patients with EVD symptoms who had travel history to any one of the affected areas within 21 days before onset;
* Although there are no direct flights from the affected areas to Hong Kong, the DH has requested airlines to broadcast health messages on all incoming flights to alert travellers;
* Immigration officers at all boundary control points assist in identifying arriving passengers holding travel documents issued by the affected areas and provide them with EVD information sheets; and
* Symptomatic travellers returning from affected areas are reminded to call 999 and inform the staff of their condition to arrange consultation in an Accident and Emergency Department.
"The CHP will issue letters to doctors and hospitals to inform them of the update. We will closely monitor the latest overseas developments and the WHO's recommendations," the spokesman added.
There is currently no vaccine available for EVD. The public should avoid unnecessary travel to affected areas, and observe good personal and environmental hygiene during travel:
* Always use liquid soap or alcohol-based hand rub to clean hands before touching the eyes, nose and mouth;
* Avoid close contact with fever or sick patients, and contact with blood or other bodily fluids of patients, including items which may have come into contact with patients' blood or other bodily fluids;
* Avoid contact with animals; and
* Cook food thoroughly before consumption.
The public should also pay attention to the hygiene practices below:
* Exercise proper wound management. Clean broken skin immediately and cover it properly with waterproof adhesive dressings. Wash hands before and after touching wounds;
* Put on appropriate personal protective equipment such as gloves and masks when handling respiratory secretions, vomitus or excreta;
* Use absorbent disposable towels to wipe away obvious contaminants as soon as possible, then disinfect the surface and neighbouring areas with appropriate disinfectant such as diluted household bleach (by adding one part of household bleach containing 5.25 per cent sodium hypochlorite to 49 parts of water), leave for 15 to 30 minutes, rinse with water and then keep dry; and
* Put contaminants into a plastic bag, seal it up and discard it into a garbage bin with a lid. Perform hand hygiene immediately and thoroughly after taking off gloves.
The public may visit the pages below for more disease information and travel advice:
* The CHP's EVD page (www.chp.gov.hk/en/view_content/34199.html);
* The CHP's list of EVD-affected areas (www.chp.gov.hk/files/pdf/evd_affected_area.pdf);
* The THS' Travel Health News (www.travelhealth.gov.hk/english/outbreaknews/outbreaknews.html); and
* The WHO's EVD page (www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/en/).
Ends/Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Issued at HKT 13:42
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