Urgent prevention of ebola outbreak

Once again, the outbreak of deadly ebola has been detected in Africa. The virus of late has drastically spread in the central African country Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo). Recently, the country's Ministry of Health announced 11 new confirmed Ebola cases and two deaths, taking the total number of cases to 45 (14 confirmed, 10 suspected, 21 probable). Under this circumstance, the World Health Organisation (WHO) raised the country's Ebola health assessment risk as "very high." WHO's Emergency Committee informs that 25 deaths have taken place and 45 cases have been reported, including that of three healthcare personnel. Among the 45 cases, 14 have been confirmed - mostly in the remote Bikoro health zone, although there's one confirmed case in Mbandaka, a city of 1.2 million.

In view of the above, we can understand that the situation has already reached an alarming level. If sufficient necessary steps are not taken right now, then it might go out of control. Authorities from around the world should come forward to prevent this deadly virus as well as raising alerts about the causes of the virus infection among the African people.

Md. Tarek Aziz Bappi

Department of Political Science, FSS

University of Dhaka

[email protected]