NEW YORK / UNITED NATIONS
A
top official of the US government agency fighting the Ebola outbreak in
Africa has urged Kenya to now prepare for the arrival of the deadly
disease.
“Every country, including Kenya, should be
prepared for that first case,” said Dr Tom Kenyon, director of the
Global Health Centre at the US Centres for Disease Control.
He stressed the urgency of putting a rapid-response team in place now.
“Don't wait until the first case arrives,” Dr Kenyon warned on Wednesday. “It will be too late.”
In
Kenya, added Gayle Smith an official at the US National Security
Council, the government has information that will enable it to detect
cases, report and isolate them and monitor the course of the disease.
Ebola “is likely to spread to other countries,” Dr Kenyon said in a conference call with reporters.
And
as the virus moves beyond West Africa, he warned, “there is the
possibility of mutation that can make it more infectious or change its
characteristics to make it more difficult to control.”
The virus is now “spiralling out of control, Dr Kenyon said. “It's on a scale we've never seen before.”
Dr Kenyon emphasised, however, that medical experts know how to contain the virus.
Eventually, he said, the outbreak will be contained and stopped.
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