Ebola measures: LFA suspends all football activities Day after day, from the claws of the ever-menacing Ebola virus, the death toll continues to rise on the heels of denialism, lack of adequate financial and logistical support for Health workers. The campaign to stop the spread of the fast becoming plague is well beyond the reach of the Health Ministry as recently pronounced by Health Minister Dr. Walter Gwenigale. Consequently, the Liberia Football Association has, with immediate effect, ordered the suspension of all and sundry football activities throughout the country to enhance the campaign. Musa Bility, president of the LFA, says prevention of the disease has become a dilemma, hence all and sundry means necessary have to be introduced to augment the effort of the Health Ministry. Liberia has now recorded 127 deaths with the latest being the head Doctor of the countrys leading referral JFK, Samuel Brisbane, who media reports say succumbed to the dreadful virus on Saturday July 26. Bility says one cardinal measures his entity has resolved to employ is to cease operations of football activities considering that football matches are contact sports and Ebola is spread through body contacts with an infected person. He says Schools, Communities, as well as, organized leagues: 4th-1st division, LONA and ISSA football authorities are to observe the measures pending full control of the outbreak. As previously scheduled, the LFA has until first week October to begin its 2014/2015 National league. Speaking after an Executive Committee meeting over the weekend during which the LFA reached the decision, Bility stressed the need for the Liberian government to enforce the quarantine and/or isolation measures to ensure clutch of further spread of the killer. He said government needs to be vigilant and robust in having individuals, families and communities abide by the measures if the notorious menace is to be arrested soon. There remain cases where families and communities are resisting health measures thus underpinning the fight to arrest the outbreak. The LFA president believes enforcement has become necessary at this stage, as Ebola is well becoming a threat to our existence yea the sub region. The LFA has also reached a decision to maintain a skeleton staff in the interim as part of its measures. Effective Monday July 28, 2014, Bility said, more than half of the LFA workforce will remain put pending the betterment of the current state of affairs. Meanwhile, the doors of the LFA will remain open to VIP appointments and issues relating to the running of football. However, straight hygienic measures will apply to every guest and skeleton staff beginning at the entrance of the LFA headquarters on Benson Street. Medical research says Ebola is spread through bodily contact, from person to person. It can also be contracted if a person comes into contact with a contaminated object or even by butchering an animal infected with the virus. A deceased person with Ebola can still transmit the virus. Fruit bats are suspected to be a natural host of the Ebola virus, according to the World Health Organization. These bats are a popular food source throughout West Africa and so WHO officials have warned residents of outbreak areas to stop hunting and cooking with the bats. The symptoms of Ebola, incubation period for Ebola hemorrhagic fever (HF) ranges from 2 to 21 days. The onset of illness is abrupt and is characterized by fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, sore throat, and weakness, followed by diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach pain. A rash, red eyes, hiccups and internal and external bleeding may be seen in some patients. Researchers do not understand why some people are able to recover from Ebola HF and others are not. However, it is known that patients who die usually have not developed a significant immune response to the virus at the time of death. The first human outbreaks of Ebola on record occurred in Sudan and Zaire in 1976. The virus is named after the Ebola River in Africa. There have been other outbreaks reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Ivory Coast, Uganda, South Sudan, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, Guinea and Liberia, according to CNN.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 11:16:08 +0000
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