Striking at Ebola where it began
We get the jitters thinking what if the Ebola virus hits our shores?
Our anxiety is not baseless. The media continues to report on the increasing number of deaths in West African countries, and the possibility of travelers bringing the virus home.
Ebola hits as if we did not have enough concerns, such as the demonic killings by the ISIS, the volcanic eruptions, floods and earthquakes taking place in many parts of the world.
Ebola is an infectious and contagious disease, spread through contact with an infected person’s or animal’s secretions, such as saliva or blood. There is no cure or vaccine for the disease.
According to the World Health Organization, more than 8,000 people in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone have contracted Ebola since March, and more than 3,800 people have died of the disease.
But we should not just sit by and watch people dying in those countries. Philippine Red Cross chair Richard Gordon is calling doctors, nurses, medical technicians, logistical experts and other professionals to volunteer their services in areas affected by the outbreak of the disease in West Africa.
“We have to protect our country, but at the same time we should go into the fray,” Gordon said. “We must fight the fire where it is happening in West Africa. Learn from it, don’t be afraid of it.”
“We have to contain the Ebola virus in (West Africa) so as to protect our borders,” Gordon said. “In this day and age of air travel, we have to make sure that we have the necessary mechanisms in place to detect the Ebola virus at our airports, and have prepared isolation facilities when necessary.”
Gordon, who had just come from a meeting of the International Federation of the Red Cross in Geneva, said that the Philippine Red Cross is ready to deploy staff and volunteers to West Africa, after they had undergone intensive training and provided with equipment which will be done in cooperation with the Canadian Red Cross and the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC).
He added that the volunteers be deployed only for a month, and then quarantined for 21 days after completing their tour of duty.
Gordon added that the Red Cross, as a worldwide movement, is engaged in beneficiary communication and community engagement, dead body management, burial and disinfection, psychosocial support, contact tracing and surveillance, clinical case management in the areas where the Ebola virus is raging.
Already, 153 international staff are deployed in West Africa, with 48 Red Cross staff deployed from Spain, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, UK, Colombia, Switzerland and Canada, and 108 local staff assisting at the Ebola treatment center in Kenema, Sierra Leone. Thousands of volunteers are also active in supporting the fight against Ebola, not only in West Africa, but in other nations as well.
At the first National Ebola Virus Disease Summit held in Quezon City, Press Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said the government is exerting all efforts to prevent the entry of the virus into the country. All concerned agencies led by the Department of Health have been tasked to monitor the spread of the virus.
The Philippines so far remains Ebola-free. Eighteen persons who may have contact with infected persons in West Africa have been tested negative for the virus.
Health Secretary Enrique Ona has also designated the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) as the “national referral center for emerging and reemerging infectious diseases.” The RITM would be the center for research and testing where they would use the latest technology from the US Centers for disease Control and Prevention,” Coloma said.
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For a long time my hubby and I wanted to treat my cousin, Usec Lyn Danao Moreno and her husband lawyer Reggie Moreno to dinner, and finally took them to Bawai’s Vietnamese Kitchen on 79 Katipunan, White Plains, in Quezon City. Lyn and I belong to the Danao-Maristela-Espinosa clan of Masbate, so our conversation turned to memories, of the old folks, of sites, sounds and smells of Masbate, of cattle ranches and beach resorts.
Our selection of Bawai’s as our reunion venue was remarkable, partaking with gusto its Vietnamese dishes that keep customers going back to the place owned by lawyer Herminio Liwanag and wife Laarni and their children. For starters, we had Chao Tom, pounded shrimps on sugarcane skewers, served with a side of greens. Salad was Goi Rau Muong, stringed water spinach, onions and seared lemongrass beef with house dressing. Ca Nuong Xa Or, a bestseller, was pan-fried lemongrass sole fillet served with a side of chicken cabbage salad. A hit was Tom Rang Me, black tiger prawns infused with a sweet tamarind paste, herbs and spring onions. A bowl of Ga Kho Guong, slow-cooked tender chicken on a ginger and onion base, was delicious, too, as did the traditional noodle soup with slices of chicken topped with herbs and spices. For dessert, their version of sapin-sapin was great , called Banh da Lon, pandan and yellow mung bean cake topped with coconut milk.
If you’re in Tagaytay, drop in at the original Bawai’s Kitchen, and savor the same tasty dishes that will have you going back for more.
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Vinculum Matrimonium of UCCP Cosmopolitan Church will hold a forum on “Human Trafficking” at the Rigos Hall on Saturday, Oct. 18 from 6 pm. The speaker will be Rev. Dr. Jose Andres Sotto, an expert on the subject. He will share spiritual insights on the subject matter, on what is being done to stop trafficking, how it is done, and why it is done.
Dr. Erlinda Senturias, one of the organizers of the forum, explains that the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime describes trafficking in persons as a serious crime and a grave violation of human rights. Every year, thousands of men, women and children fall into the hands of traffickers, in their own countries and abroad. Almost every country in the world is affected by trafficking, whether as a country of origin, transit or destination for victims.
Article 3, paragraph (a) of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons defines Trafficking in Persons as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.
The public is invited to attend the forum at Cosmopolitan Church on Taft Avenue, across the Philippine General Hospital.
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