CHISINAU, August 11 (RIA Novosti) – Moldova's border police has tightened controls at the country’s checkpoints to prevent the deadly Ebola virus from entering in the country, a representative of the country’s border police told RIA Novosti on Monday.
"Our specialists are supervising the checkpoints in order to prevent the possible entry of the Ebola virus into the country. Specifically, in Chisinau's airport, passengers get checked with a thermal scanner in order to detect people with high fever. Those with the illness symptoms must be isolated and examined," a representative of the Moldavian border police press service said.
The police are paying special attention to passengers coming from the countries in Central and West Africa, where the worst Ebola outbreak in history is being experienced.
On Sunday, a patient from neighboring Romania was isolated with Ebola-like symptoms upon his return from Nigeria.
Nigeria was the latest country to be affected by Ebola, with seven cases and two deaths, and the third country to declare a state of emergency last week, after Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Ebola symptoms resemble those of flu, and include fever, weakness, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, vomiting, diarrhea, rash and bleeding.
Patients showing similar symptoms after trips to Nigeria and Sierra were quarantined in Canada, Germany and Hong Kong over the weekend. All three tested negative for the deadly virus on Sunday. A medical student from Europe was put in quarantine in Rwanda on Monday in the first Ebola-related case in the country since the outbreak of the disease.
On Friday, the World Health Organization declared the disease’s outbreak an emergency situation of international importance.
The virus has killed 961 people as of August 6, and the number of infected stands at 1,779, according to the WHO. The virus has killed four people in Guinea, where the outbreak originated, 12 in Sierra Leone and 12 in Liberia.
There is no licensed treatment or vaccine for the Ebola virus, which has a case fatality rate of up to 90 percent. Medical workers use rehydration fluids and antibiotics to fight infections. Some groups have called for new drugs to be rolled out in Africa after two US health workers infected with the virus responded positively to an experimental treatment known as Zmapp.
