BEIJING, June 16 (Reuters) – China on Tuesday issued a revised prevention and control plan for the Ebola epidemic, requiring close contacts of Ebola cases to undergo tracking and quarantined medical observation and laying out more stringent monitoring protocols for medical institutions and customs.
• The National Disease Control and Prevention Administration revised the plan after recent Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, the administration said in a statement.
• Close contacts – people who have had direct contact with the blood, bodily fluids, secretions, excrement or contaminated materials of confirmed or suspected Ebola cases – should undergo tracking and quarantined medical observation for 21 days from their last contact with a case or contaminated item, according to the plan.
• Medical institutions, disease control agencies as well as customs at all levels should report suspected and confirmed cases through an online system within two hours.
• Monitoring will be expanded beyond port health quarantine and domestic disease monitoring to include notifications from international organisations, detection through domestic laboratory testing institutions and wastewater monitoring of inbound aircraft.
• Apart from close contacts, people arriving in China from Ebola-affected countries or regions or with travel history to affected areas within the previous 21 days must undergo 21 days of self-health monitoring after entry, the administration said.
• Provincial-level disease control agencies should coordinate with relevant government departments to track those who travelled to Ebola-affected regions, and conduct follow-up visits until the 21-day window passes.
(Reporting by Shi Bu, Yukun Zhang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )
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