The ministry called on its educational directorates to disseminate these guidelines and advice in all schools to prevent viral diseases, particularly the Marburg virus, in order to protect the health and safety of students.
These general guidelines for prevention within the school included:
- Ensure good ventilation inside classrooms and open windows during the school day.
- Do not share personal items with colleagues, such as water bottles, tissues, and pens.
- Disinfecting shared surfaces in classrooms, especially handles, tables, and computers, on a daily basis.
- Reminding students to wash their hands thoroughly with soap and water before and after eating, after playing, and after using the toilets.
- Adherence to personal hygiene and the use of tissues when coughing or sneezing, and their immediate disposal.
- Avoid direct contact with anyone suffering from high fever, vomiting, or severe diarrhea until the examination and assessment of the condition is carried out according to the doctor's instructions.
The ministry noted that in the event of symptoms appearing in suspected cases, the school takes immediate measures, which include: immediately contacting the parent to pick up the student, disinfecting the student’s seating area, monitoring the suspected case and ensuring their health before returning to school, and submitting a daily report to the educational administration and the crisis management department for follow-up and to preserve the health and safety of everyone.
The education directorates, in their instructions to schools, clarified the symptoms that should be watched for in order to take the necessary precautions if they appear in any of the students. In such cases, the parent and the school nurse should be notified, and the student should be placed in an isolation room until their condition is stable. They should not return to school until their health is confirmed. These symptoms are:
- A sudden and severe increase in temperature - A severe and persistent headache - Severe pain in the abdomen or muscles - Extreme weakness and abnormal fatigue - Bleeding from the nose or gums - Vomiting and diarrhea.
She stressed that the appearance of these symptoms does not necessarily mean infection, but they are indicators that need to be evaluated by a specialist doctor in order to ensure the health and safety of everyone.
The Ministry of Health and Population is expected to hold a press conference tomorrow, Sunday, to announce details of the respiratory viral infections coinciding with the weather conditions, in the presence of Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Population.
The Ministry of Health recently commented on questions about the reasons for the increase in respiratory diseases, stressing that this is related to the weather and the onset of winter, and that it occurs every year at this time, explaining that the most widespread viruses are influenza, in addition to the new variant of Corona.
Regarding the Marburg virus, Health Ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar confirmed that the relevant authorities are regularly monitoring epidemiological developments worldwide, including this virus that recently spread in Ethiopia, stressing that there are no suspected or confirmed cases of the virus within the country.
