Mexico is ready to face Ebola
WHO works to increase means of prevention
THE NEWS
Mexico’s Pan American Health Organization (OMS) and World Health Organization (WHO) Representative Maureen Birmingham said that there is a very low probability that Ebola will come to Mexico, but sanitation authorities are prepared and protocols are in place that conform to international standards.
In an interview after participating in the release of Americas First Report on Suicide Prevention from the WHO, Birmingham said that Mexico has the infrastructure and ability to comply with basic international sanitation rules.
The country has tools in place to detect any probable case, she said.
“Mexico has a very robust and vigilant system, a top laboratory and the training to treat Ebola,” said the representative.
“Now special training has been delivered to a medical group that has been assigned to treat any case, should a suspected infection arrive. The hospital where a patient would be isolated has already been assigned, so Mexico is taking every necessary step to prepare and basic training has been conducted. Mexico has also followed recommendations to have drills and simulations,” said Birmingham.
If a case of Ebola were to arrive in Mexico the risk of transmission is very low because the country is ready to treat the disease, she said.
One of the current priorities of the WHO is to contain the outbreak in the countries struggling to handle the majority of the cases: Liberia, New Guinea and Sierra Leone, said the representative.
The hardest-hit countries need more beds and medical equipment to treat the infected patients and better tools for containment.
The WHO wants to find a solution without closing international borders as a means of prevention, said Birmingham.
“There is no need to seal the borders,” she said. “We don’t recommend sealing borders because we know from the evidence that it’s not a very effective measure. It only serves to break the economy of the country and it is not recognized as an effective tool.”
Although no cases of Ebola have been registered in Mexico, two cases have caused panic in Dallas, Texas, just north of Mexico’s border. The virus has spread outside of West Africa through healthcare workers who treated victims within the hot zone.
After demands from concerned citizens to stop air travel to and from Liberia, New Guinea and Sierra Leone, the U.S. government announced on Tuesday that it has implemented more strict security efforts to screen for passengers entering the country that may carry the deadly virus.
Groups of people in the U.S. and Spain continue to be monitored and quarantined in an effort to prevent further spread of Ebola.
On Friday, the WHO released a report that said of the 9,191 total Ebola cases, 4,546 people have resulted in death.
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