South Africa: Totally Ebola-free
MANILA, Philippines - Our Ebola lecture series in South Africa started with Professor Lucille Blumberg of South Africa’s National Department of Health, who explained to us about the disease’s occurrence in South Africa. The long and short of it is that it’s most definitely not a problem in the country. Unfortunately, misinformation makes it hard for them to get this point across.
Professor Blumberg emphasized the difficulty of contracting Ebola, which has made it unlikely to reach South Africa. One would need to handle the body fluids of someone afflicted with the disease to get it. It’s not airborne; you can’t even get it if you just touch someone with Ebola.
The medical experts we met at the South African Airways echoed the same opinions. They demonstrated the proximity of African countries with Ebola (Guinea, Senegal, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Congo) to South Africa. Not only do these countries not share borders with South Africa, they are actually closer to Europe than they are to South Africa.
South African government and South African Airways (SAA) are enforcing several measures to ensure that the disease does not find its way into the country. It has even gone as far as imposing travel restrictions on high-risk areas, just to protect the health of its citizens and tourists. If there’s one thing I was promised, it’s that if both South Africa and SAA are required to be 100-percent cautious, they insist on being 110-percent careful, just to be sure.
