Poor sanitation may hamper efforts to check Ebola in India: Expert

NEW DELHI: Inadequate sanitation could prove to be the one of biggest challenges in tackling an Ebola outbreak in India, should the country reports its first case, Professor Peter Piot, co-discoverer of the virus, has said.

In his response to a set of questions emailed by ET, Piot, who is also the director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said India’s dense population will make it that much harder for the government to isolate patients and trace their contacts.

Although the government is making efforts to prevent such an outbreak by strengthening screening measures at all entry ports and training its medical staff, Piot feels these challenges could make containment of the virus more difficult in India than in other countries.