Lagos- The U.S. Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday said that West African countries might continue to face stigma on the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the U.S.
The CDC made the announcement in a statement given to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos by the Africa Regional Media Hub of the U.S. Department of State.
“West Africans and West African communities in the United States may face stigma because the current Ebola outbreak is associated with a region of the world.
“Stigma involves stereotyping and discriminating against an identifiable group of people, a place, or a nation and can occur when people associate an infectious disease such as Ebola…
“With a population, even though not everyone in that population or from that region is specifically at risk for the disease (for example, West Africans living in the United States).
“People of West African descent are not at more risk than other Americans if they have not recently travelled to the region.
“Ethnic or racial backgrounds have nothing to do with getting infected with Ebola and viruses like Ebola can’t target a particular population,’’ the CDC said.
According to the centre, a person who does not have Ebola symptoms cannot spread the disease.
The CDC said that Ebola could only be spread by direct contact with blood or body fluids of a person who was sick with Ebola or with objects like needles that had been contaminated with the virus.
“People who have recently returned from West Africa (Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Mali) and have no symptoms of Ebola do not put others at risk,’’ it said. (NAN)
