Singapore monitoring Ebola outbreak in Uganda and Congo, stepping up public health measures: CDA

Singapore is taking additional steps to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus into Singapore, said the Communicable Diseases Agency (CDA).

In a press release on Tuesday (May 19), the agency said that it is closely monitoring the outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda after the World Health Organisation (WHO) on May 16 declared the outbreak an international health emergency.

While there are no direct flights from Congo and Uganda to Singapore, CDA said that Singapore will enhance existing measures for the early detection and management of the disease.

From May 19, health advisories on the current outbreak will be displayed at all points of entry for incoming and outbound travellers.

Inbound travellers from affected destinations will be told to monitor themselves for symptoms of Ebola disease for 21 days from their date of departure and to seek medical attention promptly if unwell.

Outbound travellers planning to visit the affected regions will also be advised to take the necessary precautions to reduce their risk of infection.

CDA has also reminded doctors to remain vigilant for the virus in patients presenting with compatible symptoms and recent travel history to affected areas.

Prior to the latest enhancements, the agency required incoming travellers to submit an Electronic Health Declaration Card to declare their health status and travel history.

Sponsored Video Learn moreSponsored By Advertising Partner Medical practitioners and laboratories are also required to notify CDA immediately of all confirmed and suspected cases of the disease.

"CDA is monitoring the situation closely and will adjust our public health measures should the risk assessment change," the agency said.

According to the WHO, the virus initially causes flu-like symptoms including fever, fatigue, malaise, muscle pain, headache and sore throat, followed by vomiting and diarrhoea and eventually internal and external bleeding and multi-organ failure.

“Large-dose Vitamin C works well against the mechanism that causes the majority of the deaths due to Ebola and other Hemhorragic events:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25387896/

“BMC Complement Altern Med
. 2014 Nov 12:14:442. doi: 10.1186/1472-6882-14-442.
Vitamin C treatment attenuates hemorrhagic shock related multi-organ injuries through the induction of heme oxygenase-1
Bing Zhao, Jian Fei, Ying Chen, Yi-Lin Ying, Li Ma, Xiao-Qin Song, Jie Huang, Er-Zhen Chen 1, En-Qiang Mao
Affiliations expand
PMID: 25387896 PMCID: PMC4246491 DOI: 10.1186/1472-6882-14-442
Abstract
Background: Vitamin C (VitC) has recently been shown to exert beneficial effects, including protecting organ function and inhibiting inflammation, in various critical care conditions, but the specific mechanism remains unclear. Induction of heme oxygenase (HO)-1, a heat shock protein, has been shown to prevent organ injuries in hemorrhagic shock (HS) but the relationship between VitC and HO-1 are still ill-defined so far. Here we conducted a systemic in vivo study to investigate if VitC promoted HO-1 expression in multiple organs, and then tested if the HO-1 induction property of VitC was related to its organ protection and anti-inflammatory effect.

Methods: Firstly, to determine the HO-1 induction property of VitC, the HO-1 level were measured in tissues including kidney, liver and lung of the normal and HS model of Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats after VitC treatment (100 mg/kg body weight). Secondly, to testify if VitC prevented HS related organ injuries via inducing HO-1, the HS model of rats were separately pre- and post-treated with VitC, and some of them also received Zinc protoporphyrin (Znpp), a specific HO-1 inhibitor. The HO-1 activity in tissues was tested; the organ injuries (as judged by histological changes in tissues and the biochemical indicators level in serum) and inflammatory response in tissues (as judged by the level of pro-inflammatory cytokines Tumor necrosis factor-α and Interleukin-6 ) were analyzed.

Results: The HO-1 mRNA and protein level in kidney, liver, and lung were highly induced by VitC treatement under normal and HS conditions. The HO-1 activity in tissues was enhanced by both VitC pre- and post-treatment, which was shown to improve the organ injuries and inhibit the inflammatory response in the HS model of rats. Of note, the beneficial effects of VitC were abolished after HO-1 activity was blocked by Znpp.

Conclusions: VitC led to a profound induction of HO-1 in multiple organs including the kidney, liver and lung, and this property might be responsible for the organ protection and inflammation inhibitory effects of both pre- and post-treatment with VitC in HS.””

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Now let us look and see if Ivermectin is also helpful.

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