Bundeswehr with emergency plan against Ebola epidemic

Bundeswehr: Emergency plan against Ebola epidemic in West Africa

08/04/2014

The German Bundeswehr is preparing for the Ebola epidemic in West Africa with an emergency plan. German soldiers are currently stationed in neighboring countries of the countries affected by the epidemic. Every infection should be avoided.

Tropical medicine specialist develops emergency plan
With an emergency plan, the German Bundeswehr is preparing for the Ebola epidemic that is rampant in West Africa. As a spokesman for the Einsatzführungskand in Potsdam the „image“-Newspaper from Monday said it was important above all else, „to avoid any infection“. According to a report by the news agency AFP, the Bundeswehr had therefore sent a tropical medicine to Mali to the German contingent. The expert then worked out the emergency plan. A total of 173 German soldiers are currently stationed in Mali and Senegal. The two countries border Guinea, one of the three countries affected by the current Ebola epidemic.

Food for soldiers from the European market
One of the measures concerns the food of the soldiers. Among other things, food of animal origin should always come from the European and not from the local market, as the spokesperson said. In the worst case, those affected would have to be quarantined immediately. The current outbreak of the dangerous infectious disease is considered the hardest of all times. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1,300 people in West Africa have now become infected with Ebola. The epidemic has already claimed at least 729 lives.

Neither vaccine nor cure for Ebola available
Currently, the mortality rate of registered cases is well over 50 percent. A vaccine or remedy for Ebola is not yet available. Therefore, physicians usually have to confine themselves to alleviating typical Ebola symptoms such as fever, diarrhea, or internal and external bleeding and preventing further spread. Hopeful messages like: „Vaccine against Ebola virus should work“. For example, a vaccine from the US should have achieved positive results in animal experiments. It is said that the US Department of Health (NIH) wants to test the vaccine against the Ebola virus that has not yet been approved. (Ad)