Media Information: Immediate Release CONFIRMATION OF LINK BETWEEN EBOLA AND RHINO HORN
(please share far & wide )
(please share far & wide )
The decision to release confirmed rhino poachers in the Hwange region of Zimbabwe, after arrest, has been met with mixed reaction, after it was revealed that the decision was based on their displaying symptoms of haemorrhagic infection (Ebola virus), including fever, vomiting and diarrhoea. Precautionary communication needs to be distributed internationally, in all involved with animal trade, in order to avoid a pandemic.
The official notification from the reads as follows: Ebola haemorrhagic fever is transmitted from infected animals to humans, and then from human to human. Methods of prevention of the spread of the virus include decreasing the spread of disease from infected animals to humans.
This is normally done by checking animals for infection and killing and properly disposing of the bodies if the disease is discovered.
Wearing protective clothing when handling meat and animal products is essential, as is wearing protective clothing and washing hands when in the area of carcasses or persons with the disease.
Samples of bodily fluids, tissues or any cell-containing parts like hair, horn or nails has to be handled with special caution, according to international experts.
This is normally done by checking animals for infection and killing and properly disposing of the bodies if the disease is discovered.
Wearing protective clothing when handling meat and animal products is essential, as is wearing protective clothing and washing hands when in the area of carcasses or persons with the disease.
Samples of bodily fluids, tissues or any cell-containing parts like hair, horn or nails has to be handled with special caution, according to international experts.
Once human infection occurs, the disease may spread between people, as well. Male survivors may be able to transmit the disease via semen for nearly two months. To make the diagnosis, typically other diseases with similar symptoms such as malaria, cholera and other viral hemorrhagic fevers are first excluded.
To confirm the diagnosis, blood samples are tested for viral antibodies, viral RNA, or the virus itself. The spread of Ebola haemorrhagic fever through contact with bush meat is well documented.
Rhino poachers are generally badly educated and often illiterate, and methods used in the removal of rhino horn and other rhino body parts in the bush are not sophisticated. None of the rhino horn or products, because of their illegality, is tested for Ebola haemorrhagic fever.
Two vulnerable groups have been identified regarding the spread of Ebola through RHINO HORN AND RHINO PRODUCTS.
The first group is the poachers and handlers of the horn and products, which is most obvious. The second is a more insidiously infected grouping, namely the end users. Because no tests are carried out on the rhino products, the end users are at possibly the greatest risk, especially because of the ingestion of the rhino products.
The end users are often in Asian countries, where the threat of Ebola infection is not as vivid as in Africa, and thus end users could become unsuspecting victims. Because Ebola haemorrhagic fever is virtually unknown in Asia, the spread could be dramatic before the virus is isolated and identified.
The first group is the poachers and handlers of the horn and products, which is most obvious. The second is a more insidiously infected grouping, namely the end users. Because no tests are carried out on the rhino products, the end users are at possibly the greatest risk, especially because of the ingestion of the rhino products.
The end users are often in Asian countries, where the threat of Ebola infection is not as vivid as in Africa, and thus end users could become unsuspecting victims. Because Ebola haemorrhagic fever is virtually unknown in Asia, the spread could be dramatic before the virus is isolated and identified.
The reality is that there is more than 200% better chance of dying from Ebola haemorrhagic fever after ingesting rhino horn or rhino products, than what there is of achieving an erection and orgasm after ingesting rhino horn or rhino products.
1 1. Wei Xu, Megan R. Edwards, Dominika M. Borek, Alicia R. Feagins, Anuradha Mittal, Joshua B. Alinger, Kayla N. Berry, Benjamin Yen, Daisy W. Leung Ebola Virus VP24 Targets a Unique NLS Binding Site on Karyopherin Alpha 5 to Selectively Compete with Nuclear Import of Phosphorylated STAT1. Cell Host & Microbe, 2014; 16 (2): 187 DOI:10.1016/j.chom.2014.07.008 On 2 April 2014, the World Health Organisation (WHO), in a communiqué published by the UN, reported that it had recorded 5 new cases of Ebola fever in Guinea.
Since January, the total number of suspected and confirmed cases of Ebola fever in the present outbreak in Guinea is 127, with 83 deaths, according to WHO, which states that 35 cases were confirmed by laboratory testing. Of these, 41 deaths were shown to be directly attributable to the handling of rhino horn products or by-products.
The initial samples were analysed in Lyon in the Jean Mérieux-Inserm BSL-4 Laboratory directed by Hervé Raoul, Inserm Research Director, by the French National Reference Centre for Viral Haemorrhagic Fevers (attached to the Biology of Viral Emerging Infections Unit at the Institut Pasteur, directed by Sylvain Baize).
A positive diagnosis was made. The population of west Africa is not nearly as dense at the populations of Asian countries. The risk involved if Ebola ever takes off in Asia warrants an early warning, irrespective of current absence of recorded cases. (ends)
21 August 2014/ English
For immediate distribution
21 August 2014/ English
For immediate distribution
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