Encomium
Encomium.ng brings to you eight precautionary measures you need, to protect yourself from the viral disease.
1. Avoid contact with animals that could carry the virus like monkeys, rats, squirrels and antelopes (including animals that are sick or that have been found dead in areas where monkeypox occurs).
2. Always wash your hands with soap and water after contact with animals, when caring for sick relatives or soiled beddings, after visiting the toilet, before cooking and before eating.
3. Avoid contact with any materials, such as bedding, that have been in contact with a sick animal. Also close contact with infected droplets from cough and sneezes can also spread the disease.
4. Isolate infected patients from others who could be at risk of infection. The virus is usually present in the blood, body fluids and secretion of people who are infected. This include saliva, tears and urine.
5. Thoroughly cook all animal products (meat) before eating. In fact, the consumption of the popular bush meat like rats and squirrels should be stopped.
6. Use personal protective equipment (PPE) when caring for patients. Health care workers are strongly advised to practice universal precautions while handling patients and body fluids at all times.
7. Any animals that might have come into contact with an infected animal should be quarantined, handled with standard precautions and observed for monkeypox symptoms for 30 days.
8. Be informed at all times. Whenever there is a disease outbreak, the government will always give routine updates about the spread or containment of the disease and you would stay abreast with different steps you can take to stay safe.
- Chika Okorie for encomium.ng
