Australia lives in red alert worried about Ebola reaching its shores

Australia has decreed a red alert being afraid about virus Ebola can reach its shores in the near future. Customs and Border Security around the nation have been placed on red alert following the rapid spread of the virus all along the world. The infectious disease has been responsible of the death of almost 700 people in several western African countries in the last weeks.

The federal government’s chief health experts met with border protection agencies on Tuesday to elaborate a plan to check, follow and monitor of incoming passengers at airports coming from Africa or who had been there in the past. The world’s leading health authorities have expressed that the disease could jump out of Africa, and the US confirms the arrival of the first person affected by the disease in the country, US doctor Kent Bradley, who was working against the disease in Liberia.

That bolstering of security was followed by a meeting of the Communicable Diseases Network of Australia, headed by Australia’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Baggoley, key infectious diseases doctors, and all state and territory health authorities. At the meeting, topics like the possibility of the disease reaching Australia and how to respond were discussed.

The danger is real, if we note the data of Smartraveller website which say that more than 200 Australians have registered with the government’s as currently travelling or working in the African nations affected by the outbreak, being the majority of them based in Nigeria.

A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs has reports that the Australian government is keeping in touch with each of those travellers and expats.

Virus Ebola is a highly contagious virus, and has a 90 percent of mortality rate and there is no treatment for the virus. Ebola is transferred between humans via bodily fluids. It could be as simple as wiping a tear off a person’s face or as intimate as the transfer of saliva or semen. Even the virus could be transferred once a person has died.

by Santi Ivar

Source: theasutralian.com.au