Thailand monitoring Ebola outbreaks

BANGKOK, July 30 (TNA) - The Thai Ministry of Public Health is closely monitoring outbreaks of Ebola virus in Africa, advising those travelling to risk areas to take extra precautions and those returning home with suspicious symptoms to go to see doctors immediately. The Ministry of Public Health said on Wednesday that countries where the Ebola virus is spreading include Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The ministry recommended that people, when travelling to the countries at risk, avoid any direct contact with patients by wearing protective gloves or clothes and washing hands regularly and avoid contacting with patients’ blood, body fluid and personal belongings, as well as avoid contacting with wild animals, consumption of bush meat, especially monkeys and bats or strange wild animal products. Director-General of the ministry's Department of Disease Control Dr. Sophon Mekthon, meanwhile, advised people with high fever, fatigue, headache, muscle pain, sore throat and rash to go to see doctors immediately and to report their travel histories to the doctors for timely treatment, especially those who return from Ebola risk areas. For further information on the disease, people are welcome to call the ministry's Bureau of Emerging Infectious Diseases (BEID) at 662-590-3159 and 662-590-3538 or the Department of Disease Control’s hotline, 1422.(TNA)