Meeting the Ebola threat: better safe than sorry

India needs to be firm and proactive

The outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in four West African countries has rightly been labelled an international emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO). No country is completely immune to the highly contagious virus. The virus in its incubation stage is not generally expected to survive airplane flights. Even so, India cannot consider itself safe. Over 45,000 Indian nationals live in the Ebola-hit countries - Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria - and many of them intend to return to escape from it. Some 50 to 60 families are said to be already in the process of moving back. They, along with other travellers from these countries, are potential carriers of Ebola - which has no vaccine or cure and which kills over 90 per cent of its victims. The outbreak is severe because Ebola can spread through the bodily fluids of those infected - dead bodies can transmit the virus during burial ceremonies. Several medical professionals have also contracted the virus in the course of their duties.

The WHO has conceded that Ebola is spreading faster than it can be controlled, at the moment. Unfortunately, efforts to develop any vaccine or treatment are still in preliminary stages. One product that has shown some promise and is, therefore, being rushed through the trials process, is "ZMapp" produced by a small start-up in San Diego. Its experimental use on two United States health workers who had contracted Ebola in West Africa has shown encouraging results. This potion works on passive immunotherapy whereby, instead of deploying a vaccine to stimulate antibodies production in a person, the antibodies bred in mice are introduced directly into the person to quicken its action and possible relief. The WHO seems inclined to put aside normal procedures for clinical trials to hasten the availability of anti-Ebola medication. Yet any commercial drug may not be available before next year.

India has, no doubt, been quick to evolve an elaborate strategy to ward off import of this lethal virus and prevent its spread within the country. But the system relies heavily on self-declaration of health status and prior travel by incoming air passengers. Many people, wary of imminent quarantine, may tend to hide the facts. Though there is a provision for medical check-up in suspected cases, but that, too, may be of limited value. For, the initial symptoms of this malady can be non-specific and, thus, misleading. The disease can come up any time during the long incubation period of the Ebola virus, varying from two to 21 days. Moreover, New Delhi's advisory that non-essential travel to West Africa should be avoided seems too mild. Given the unique nature of this infection, any travel to West Africa should be subjected to more stringent scrutiny till the situation is brought under control there. Besides, people coming from the virus-endemic zone should ideally be quarantined, or placed under close observation, until the threat period of three weeks is over. At the very least, competent medical personnel should monitor their health on a daily basis, rather than leaving it to them to report any health problem. That is the only way to ensure early detection. These systems should be in place well before any confirmed case of Ebola sets off a panic in Delhi or Mumbai.