Much ado about Ebola; the truth about the virus.

   The present Ebola craze has spun out of control, and my greatest fear is that we will only scare ourselves into infection. These are few points we must note;

•  Ebola is not the apocalypse. we need to calm down. It has not yet been proven to be transmitted by air but mainly by ' CONTACT WITH BODY FLUIDS'. Body fluids include saliva, blood, semen, secretions,sweat. Avoid indiscriminate kissing (no, i'm not kidding), excessive body contact. The idea of handshake transmission is simply with respect to sweat on the palms, not anything mysterious.

•  Personal hygiene is nothing new. We were all taught in health education, Ebola is only here to enforce it. If there is a time to have O.C.D (obsessive compulsive disorder), this is it. Wash your hands regularly, make hand sanitizers a part of your life. It has never been very healthy to shake people anyway, no one knows where any ones hands has been. So master courtesy without contact.Eat what, and where you know. The rule is ' be neat to a fault'.

•  Bush meat is a reservoir for the virus, find other ways to entertain your taste buds. Variety is still the spice of life. So there is chicken, beef, Asun( peppered goat meat) and whatever else catches your fancy. 

• No, eating bags of bitter kola or kola nut will not save you from Ebola only diabetes. Bitter kola is now rumored to be a prophylactic, a preventive measure, this is very untrue. Drinking salt water will only increase your body sodium and chlorine levels predisposing you to hypertension. It will not save you from Ebola. Bathing with salt water is only laughable (unless you now have elephant thick skin). These are very ridiculous suggestions. Our mantra should be 'hygiene! hygiene!hygiene!'save your money for better certain preventive tools like hand sanitizers and disinfectants, while the scientist research for reliable treatments. 

•  Health care professionals are at the greatest line of risk. The corners we often cut to speed up what we do must now be avoided. Every sample is potentially infective, and every patient a potential carrier. Always wear personal protective equipment's. this is nothing new. We practically are scourged with this warning in medical school. Latex gloves are not an accessory, they are a necessity. They do for our hands what condoms do for HIV transmission. Change gloves between patients to avoid acting as a carrier,and transmitting the infection. still, nothing new. This has after-all always been the gold standard.

     Panic will only make the job of opportunist easier, and never under estimate the efficiency of the rumor mill. In a time of confusion not everything you hear is true. If your pastor can cure Ebola, goody! keep it to yourself. It is after all God that heals. If you are over dosing on 'God forbid' and 'it is not my portion' who am i to stop you? to every man his own. Only as you pray, help yourself; prevention of infection is better than any known cure. Ignorance is not an excuse.