Letters: Tackling Ebola

This refers to the editorial "Unprepared for Ebola" (October 13). That there is no remedy for Ebola is what makes it horrible.

Not just patients, the bodies of Ebola victims, too, need to be quarantined because those coming into contact with the bodies could contract the virus. Here, religious sentiments are an impediment - many communities embalm the bodies and conduct rituals before cremating them. This is dangerous. People must be advised to be sensible with their dogmas.

A campaign by the health ministry on what the virus is all about and what precautions should be taken will be a good start.

But do we have the infrastructure to deal with this threat? What happens if someone infected with the virus lands in Mumbai and travels by road to, say, Kohlapur, where a public hospital would be nothing but a worthless shack? And how do authorities track the person infected with Ebola, which shows no symptoms, at the time of screening?

Raghu Seshadri Chennai

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