Bangladesh peacekeeping troops in Ebola-hit West African countries such as Liberia and Mali are quite safe and keeping out of contact with local communities to remain unaffected by the epidemic having no known medicine so far, a defence ministry official has said.
Five countries so far have been affected by the killer disease including Guinea, where the outbreak originated, besides Sierra Leone and Nigeria. Fears are growing in other countries like Ethiopia, Kenya and even Saudi Arabia now feels unsafe.
It is a hemorrhagic virus which gets transmitted by direct contact with blood, body fluids and tissues of an infected person.
Around 1,000 people are so far dead and 1,500 more suffering from the unknown disease while overnight desperate efforts are afoot by medical scientists to discover medicine to treat patients.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a global health alert Friday asking heightened watch over the spread of the disease beyond the region.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh health authorities also alerted airport authorities to prevent the Ebola virus from getting into the country with proper health check-up of passengers from African continent, said a health ministry official Friday.
On safety of Bangladesh peacekeeping troops stationed in Liberia and Mali, the senior army officer at the Ministry of Defence told the FE Saturday that all forces were safe and protected at their workplaces.
According to him, at present around 1,000 troops are stationed in Mali. The number of troops in Liberia is around 450.
He said no UN soldier was affected so far as proper restrictive measures were put in place six to seven months back, when the symptoms of the dieses made its first debut.
UN peacekeeping authorities imposed 'standing restrictions' on movement of the forces, not only of Bangladesh troops but all troops serving as the UN peacekeepers while their regular interactive activities at the community level were also suspended. All civil-military cooperation activities were put to a halt to keep the forces away from being infected by the new virus.
He said at some places soldiers were engaged in road building and repair.
Under the prevailing circumstances they were doing it alone without involving the local people.
Moreover, the UN was supplying the forces with food and other essentials. They were receiving rations including rice, frozen meat, fish and such other commodities in packets from the UN that makes it unnecessary to buy essentials from local markets. Food contamination was thus avoided, he said.
BD peacekeepers safe from Ebola in Africa
FE Report | Published: August 10, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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