KRCS expresses readiness to help Ebola-infected countries

Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) expressed readiness to offer all support to the West African nationas grappling to stop the spread of the epidemic and deadly Ebola virus disease.
"The KRCS is closely following up the development of the disease and is ready to offer all support and help to the infected countries," KRCS Deputy Chairman Anwar Al-Hassawi told KUNA following a meeting with ambassadors of Senegal, Liberia and Sierra Leone in Kuwait.
For their part, the ambassadors said that they have briefed the KRCS officials about the latest developments of the epidemic disease in their respectively countries. They stated that they are ready to provide KRCS with all required data and information about the disease.
Earlier, Kuwait Health Ministry issued a statement affirming that Kuwait is free of the virus, but it urged the citizenry not to travel to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone due to rising numbers of people infected with Ebola virus there amidst fears of spreading to other African countries.
The ministry, on its website, urged the Ministry of Interior to suspend granting of visas to workers coming from these countries.
Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans. EVD outbreaks have a case fatality rate of up to 90 percent.
Since breaking out earlier this year, the epidemic has claimed 932 lives and infected more than 1,700 people across West Africa, according to the World Health Organisation.
EVD outbreaks occur primarily in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests. The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission.
EVD is a severe acute viral illness often characterized by the sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding. Laboratory findings include low white blood cell and platelet counts and elevated liver enzymes.
Severely ill patients require intensive supportive care. No licensed specific treatment or vaccine is available for use in people or animals.