MOH News

MOH Orders Suspension of Issuing Hajj and Umrah’s Visas for the Guinean and Liberian People
01 April 2014
Stemming from its keenness on the health and safety of citizens, residents and Holy Mosques’ visitors, the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced that it has asked the competent authorities to suspend issuing the Hajj and Umrah’s visas for the people of Guinea and Liberia as a precautionary procedure against the outbreak of the Ebola hemorrhagic fever, spread there, though the World Health Organization (WHO) hasn’t required any ban on travel to or trade with both countries yet.
 
Within the same vein, the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the WHO and all partners, keeps on taking the necessary precautionary measures, in order to control this disease and its outbreak outside these geographical areas. Therefore, the WHO and the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) have sent experts; in en endeavor to support the practical combating process in the fields of coordination, infection prevention and control, epidemic surveillance, therapeutic measures, media and social mobilization. The total number of suspected and confirmed cases of the Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Guinea has reached 112 cases on 30th March 2013 (30 of them passed away) at a death rate of 60%. Besides, the reported cases are being examined in Liberia and Sierra Leone, along the borders with Guinea. Furthermore, the Liberian Health Ministry has announced that seven suspected cases have been recorded in the state on 29th March 2013, two of them were confirmed.
 
The Ebola hemorrhagic fever, known as the viral hemorrhagic, is one of the most common fatal diseases. The Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) was discovered for the first time in 1976 in one of the western tropical regions in Sudan, at a zone near Zaire (called now the Democratic Republic of Congo), given that the disease has not been detected outside the Central and East Africa countries. The Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) has five separate viral species, namely: Bundibugyo, Côte d'Ivoire, Reston, Sudan and Zaire.
 
It was found out that the species of Bundibugyo, Sudan and Zaire have caused wide outbreaks of Ebola in Africa, and led to the death of 25% to 90% of the total number of clinical cases, while the species of Côte d'Ivoire and Reston didn’t result in the onset of any similar outbreaks.
 
It is worth mentioning that the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) can be transmitted through contact with the infected blood or body fluids containing the virus. It also can be transmitted through dealing with wild animals carrying the virus, such as: chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys, antelopes, and fruit bats, whether they are sick or dead. Besides, there is no effective qualitative cure for this disease, but only supportive health care.
 
 
 
 
 



Last Update : 06 April 2014 08:36 AM
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