Ebola co-discoverer: crisis avoidable if acting early

Peter Piot, co-discoverer of Ebola virus in 1976, said Monday in Hong Kong that the lesson that people should draw from an Ebola crisis was that it could be avoidable if acting early.

Speaking at the University of Hong Kong, Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said that west Africa funeral tradition deteriorated the epidemic.

In west African traditions, people touch and kiss the beloved ones in funerals to say good bye Once families and friends touched dead bodies, they would be easily got infected as Ebola virus would be in its strongest situation soon after patients died. Once people touched died bodies, they would be easily infected.

Piot then stressed that acting early was very important for every outbreak. He said if measures were implemented earlier, and patients were properly isolated, the crisis would be avoidable.

"I would rather be accused of overreacting than not reacting, and then let things out of control," he said.

In his view, to stop Ebola epidemic in west Africa is not only a good deed, but also in line with interests of other countries.

"Our world is so globalized...Hong Kong (for instance) is a crossroads of many many continents. So the best way to control Ebola in any country is to make sure that in west Africa it is stopped."

He criticized the United States' newly released policy which demands anyone who had contact with Ebola sufferers in west Africa have to be put under a 21-day quarantine after flying into New York and New Jersey. He said this would totally undermine volunteers' support to west African countries, and the effect of the measure needed to be testified.

In terms of China, Piot warned that the increasing number of Chinese people working in west Africa could pose a risk.

However, Piot believed that very crisis could bring positive changes. "This is an opportunity...to intensify training in infection control of hospital workers."

According to the latest figures released by the World Health Organization, more than 10,000 people have been infected with Ebola and nearly half of them have died.

The deadly Ebola virus, which first broke out in West Africa in March, has put the whole world on high alert since it spread to Europe and the United States.