Hello y’all 🙂 I hope you’ve had a good day.

More questions on Ebola continue to come in and I’ll address them today.

Q: Please Doctor I am desperate to know if one can be infected with EBOLA VIRUS through dead body (CADAVER). Thanks.

A: Absolutely, people can get infected by being in contact with the dead body of someone who died of Ebola. Generally, when the term cadaver is used, it refers to dead bodies used in medical schools for dissection. Medical students would usually dissect dead bodies to study the anatomy of the human body. Now, the medical schools would follow strict protocols in procuring these bodies, knowing fully well the routes of transmission of Ebola.
For other people, please have no contact with dead bodies belonging to Ebola victims. As a result of this route o transmission of Ebola, the Federal Government of Nigeria has banned the transport of corpses between states except those that have special waivers.

Q: Dr, I want to know if the nurse in question has tested positive to Ebola or she was under quarantine for observation due to her contact with the late Liberian? This is because right now in Enugu people are panicking. Thanks.

A: There’s no need for panic in Enugu. The nurse in question was involved in the treatment of the index (first) case reported in Nigeria. All the people she had contact with (primary contacts) and those who had contact with her primary contacts (secondary contacts) are under surveillance. Anyone under these groups would have already been contacted and placed under surveillance. Indeed, the risk for these people is only significant if they had contact with her body fluids: blood, stool, urine, saliva. Good hand washing and hygienic practices while being vigilant to watch out for sick people is key. Don’t play doctor and report suspected cases to the Ebola alert lines of the Federal Ministry of Health: 08037879701, 08037154575 or send an email to ebolainfo@health.gov.ng We must not let this virus move beyond the locations it has reached now.
Q: Thanks Doc. How do we know who has Ebola when symptoms have not shown up? We can’t tell who has severe fever, headache and weakness just from appearance now. Please, can u shed more light on this?

A: You can’t tell who has Ebola if they don’t have symptoms. Indeed, you can’t be infected by the virus if the ‘suspected’ patient has no symptoms. The infected person can only infect other people when he/she starts manifesting the symptoms we had described before: Headache, fever, sore throat, intense weakness and muscle pain. Later, diarrhea, vomiting, kidney and liver failure and bleeding internally or externally. So stay away from sick or ill people and advice them to visit the hospital immediately. If they have had contact with Ebola patients, this becomes even more of an emergency.

Q: Is it advisable for one to stop business just because of Ebola? You can’t avoid body contact in the market? What of school children?
A: This is a very valid question. But the truth is that Ebola has definitely changed the way we do things…and this will probably have to keep evolving until we kick this bug. The catholic churches have suspended ‘offering each other the sign of peace’ which involved handshakes with people all around you. In the same way, I see people becoming more orderly as they try to reduce body contact with other people in the market and outside of the market.

Should you stop business? Well, unless you have some other means of settling your bills, this may not be feasible 🙂 because even as Ebola rages, land lords are collecting rent, workers still need their salaries….and generally, life is moving on; just a bit differently. Create your new reality. Limit your contact with your customers and always have water nearby to wash your hands frequently.

With you and I doing the right things, we can break the chain of transmission. This is not the time to bury our heads in the sand (as we usually like to do). Anyone contacted by public health officials as a contact should please heed the quarantine or surveillance call and not put even more people at risk of this virus.

Have a good night, people 🙂