The West African Postgraduate College of Pharmacists (WAPCP), on Friday in Abuja, trained no fewer than 500 Nigerian Pharmacists on Ebola prevention.
Addressing participants, Prof. Wilson Erhun, the Secretary General, WAPCP, said the training became necessary due to the challenges posed by the outbreak of the disease.
He said that health workers, including pharmacists, medical doctors and nurses, were more vulnerable to contracting the disease because of their close contact with patients.
“It is generally agreed that the best way to contain the spread of the disease is by providing accurate and relevant information on the outbreak and ways of reducing risk of exposure.
“The Ebola disease glides well on three pillars namely; denial, fear and panic, these are the three strategies of the disease that must be tackled to break the active transmission.
“Ebola is not an airborne disease and its spread can be contained if basic hygiene practices are adopted,’’ he said.
Erhun said reports indicated that people in Sierra Leone and Liberia were becoming afraid to seek medical attention in public hospitals for fear of being quarantined.
According to him, sick people, including Ebola patients, are likely to seek care in community pharmacies and medical shops because of fear of being quarantined.
In his presentation, Mr Noel Wannang of the Faculty of Clinical Pharmacy, West African Postgraduate College of Pharmacists, urged participants to take precautionary measures when attending to patients.
He advised the pharmacists to always wear hand gloves and practice `nurse barrier technique’ when managing patients with febrile illness.
Wannang advised the general public to desist from the cultural practice of drinking water of washed dead bodies as the virus still remains active after the death of an infected person.
He also cautioned on the consumption of bush meat, saying Ebola was a zoonotic disease which was easily transmitted by animals.
According to the World Health Organisation, health-care workers have frequently been infected while treating patients with suspected or confirmed Ebola virus disease.
The WHO has expressed concern about the “unprecedented” number of healthcare workers hit by the Ebola outbreak.
More than 120 health workers have died and over 240 others have been infected so far.
“ This has occurred through close contact with patients when infection control precautions are not strictly practiced,’’ it said.
According to WHO figures, the disease had killed a total of 1,552 people and infected 3,062 as of Aug. 26.
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