A two-day ‘Photo and Science Exhibition’ began at the MKCG Medical College here on Wednesday in which the deadly Ebola disease became the focal point of sharing information among the enthusiastic visitors.
Inaugurating the exhibition, Prof PC Sahu said Ebola is a severe and often fatal disease for humans and nonhuman primates (monkeys and chimpanzees) caused by the Ebola virus characterised by high fever and severe internal bleeding which can be spread from person to person and is largely limited to Africa. Prof Sahu stressed on preventive measures against this killer disease.
A Third Year MBBS student of the college, Dinabandhu Choudhury, said 8,219 persons affected by Ebola have so far died across the world and the year 2014 witnessed a multifold increase in the number of affected patients. Though no effective treatment for this disease has yet been evolved, medical researchers are still working hard in their endeavour to find out a solution. No preventive medicine has so far been successful for the disease and there is a need to sensitise school and college students and the public at large about preventive measures which this unique exhibition aims at.
Notably, Ebola virus disease (EVD) first appeared in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks, one in Nzara, Sudan and the other in Yambuku, Congo. The latter occurred in a village near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name. The current outbreak in West Africa, (first cases notified in March 2014), is the largest and most complex Ebola outbreak since the virus was first discovered in 1976. It has also spread between countries starting in Guinea then spreading across land borders to Sierra leone and liberia, by air to Nigeria and by land to Senegal.
But in 2014, the disease witnessed a manifold increase. According to a WHO estimate, 20,712 persons have so far been affected by it which is quite alarming, said the large number of experts and doctors who attended the inaugural ceremony of the exhibition.
The exhibition was organised by the Academic Society of the Students’ Union. Among others, MKCG Medical College Principal Prof AK Dandapat, Dr AK Meher and Dr Jyoti Prasad Pattnaik were the guests. Academic Society office-bearers Souvan Rout and Rajaram Swain coordinated the exhibition.