The World Health Organization has dubbed the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria as a “global health emergency” following the rapid outbreak that took the lives of more than10, 000 individuals worldwide in a span of eight months (CNN News, 2015). While the virus started in Guinea, which later documented cases in Liberia and Sierra Leone, the Ebola outbreak began spreading to other parts of the world causing many countries, especially third, world to panic. Seemingly, nobody not even the US, was prepared for an epidemic as potent and as critical as the Ebola virus outbreak. Initiates had been forwarded to address the issue. One of the most critical initiatives was to protect health workers from being infected with the virus.
Thus, the World Health Organization along with the Jhpiego, an affiliate of the John Hopkins University, initiated a campaign that is aimed towards infection and prevention control (Ali, 2015). Considering the health risk of the Ebola virus among health professionals and volunteers there was the pressing urgency to ensure the safety of the people who were tasked to control the situation. The goal of the organization is to ensure the protection of the health workers who are in the forefront of the situation. Included in the initiative towards infection and prevention control was to provide ample supply of chlorine which is a significant component to ensure infection prevention and sanitation of equipment. In addition, there was also the regular briefing and counselingu for health workers to focus on their duties and assume to maintain the proper sterilization process (Global Initiatives Against Ebola Viruses Diseases, 2014).
As a response to the growing problem and massive hysteria, the World Health Organization has maintains to aggressively monitor the potential spread of the disease by enforcing aggressive containment and quarantine of people who are exposed to the virus (World Health Organization, 2014). Any signs of a possible infection is immediately isolated to prevent the spread of the disease.
References
Ali, N. (2015, January 23). Protecting Health Workers in Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria. Retrieved from Jhpiego’s Ebola Website: http://www.jhpiego.org/content/protecting-health-workers-liberia-guinea-and-nigeria
CNN News. (2015, March 14). Ebola Fast Facts. Retrieved from CNN Libraries: http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/11/health/ebola-fast-facts/index.html
Global Initiatives Against Ebola Viruses Diseases. (2014, April 12). Home: Global Initiatives Against Ebola Viruses Diseases. Retrieved from Global Initiatives Against Ebola Viruses Diseases Website: http://ebolaglobalinitiative.org/index.html
World Health Organization. (2014, September). Ebola virus disease. Retrieved from World Health Organization Website: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/