As a one-stop shop for healthcare needs for holidaygoers, a travel clinic offers a wide range of specialised pharmaceutical services, as well as vaccinations, prescription dispensing and tailored health advice to ensure you keep as safe as possible when on holiday.
This will help protect you from everything from stomach bugs whilst in a different country to potentially highly dangerous, albeit somewhat rare, infectious diseases.
One of the rarest, most infectious and most dangerous of these is Ebola disease, and with an outbreak reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it is important to know how to be as careful as possible if travelling to a region where infections are known.
To that end, here is an explanation of what Ebola is, how to protect yourself from it, and why it is so rare despite being so infectious.
What Is Ebola?
Ebola, or Ebola virus disease, is a highly infectious disease caused by a family of viruses known as orthoebolaviruses, which can often require rapid emergency intervention to treat and can be potentially fatal.
It is often symptomatic, and these symptoms primarily include extreme fatigue, flu-like symptoms and a hemorrhagic illness known as Ebola disease.
This often involves bleeding of the gums, blood in bodily fluids, internal and external bleeding, bruising, gastrointestinal troubles and failure of the kidney and liver.
There is no cure, so treatment involves extensive rehydration with electrolyte solutions, as well as managing oxygen and blood pressure. The exact prognosis varies widely depending on which specific virus caused it, when treatment began and the overall health of the patient.
What can complicate this is that, despite the belief that many people infected with it bleed profusely, this typically occurs later in the progression of the disease.
It can often be confused with malaria, typhoid or meningitis, all three of which can be more effectively protected against. Because of this, any flu-like infectious disease in an area where there is at least one case of Ebola is often taken very seriously.
How Can You Protect Yourself From It?
There are vaccines that can protect against Ebola virus disease, and several vaccines are in development to provide protection against other forms of the virus. However, the best way to protect yourself from the disease is through prevention and infection control.
Ebola is particularly virulent and spreads through bodily fluids and objects contaminated by the bodily fluids of an infected person. It can also spread via sexual contact up to a year after recovery.
It cannot spread through droplets, such as those caused by coughing or sneezing, but if bleeding is a symptom, then infected blood can risk it spreading further.
If you are travelling to an area where there has been an outbreak, get in touch with your local travel clinic to get urgent advice regarding the situation. It may be recommended that you avoid all nonessential travel until the situation is under control.
Typically, travel insurance options can be limited if a place is known to be affected by Ebola, so travellers should also get in touch with their provider.
Beyond this, regularly wash your hands, avoid anyone who has recently had symptoms, wash and peel vegetables to avoid them, and wear personal protective equipment if you are an aid or medical worker travelling to a region with an outbreak.
Why Is Ebola Relatively Rare?
One unusual contradiction with Ebola is that it is an incredibly serious infection that can spread relatively easily, and yet, despite this, it is considered a low risk to British citizens outside of those who are travelling to an area where it is known to be prevalent.
The biggest reason for this is the seriousness and rapid onset of symptoms. Whilst these symptoms can in some cases be mistaken for other infectious diseases, any one of them is still serious enough to merit treatment, infection control and isolation.
This, in combination with the high fatality rate of some outbreaks, means that it struggles to spread beyond relatively small localised sporadic outbreaks.
Most of the time, people will travel and at no point be anywhere even remotely close to an Ebola case, and it has never spread from person to person in the United Kingdom.
There have been only four cases of Ebola in the United Kingdom.
One of these was a lab technician who caught the disease from a tainted needle in 1976, whilst the other three were health workers who had returned from the 2014 epidemic in West Africa.
All four people made a full recovery, and helped to create more intensive health security measures to ensure that a widespread infection in the UK is unlikely.
Frequently Asked Questions
The risk of Ebola for most tourists is extremely low. Ebola outbreaks are typically confined to specific regions and are closely monitored by international public health authorities. Travellers can reduce their risk by following official travel advice and avoiding contact with infected individuals or bodily fluids.
Ebola vaccines exist but are generally reserved for outbreak response, healthcare workers, and people at high occupational risk. They are not routinely recommended for most holidaymakers. Your travel health pharmacist can advise if any special precautions are required for your destination.
Avoid contact with blood and bodily fluids, practise good hand hygiene, avoid handling wild animals or bushmeat, and follow local public health guidance. If travelling to an area experiencing an outbreak, monitor official travel advice carefully before departure.