Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Introducing The Ebola Handshake

Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, right, gives U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power what is know as the 'Ebola handshake' during a news conference in the city of  Monrovia on Tuesday
Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, right, gives U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power what is know as the 'Ebola handshake' during a news conference in the city of Monrovia on Tuesday
Reuters
U.S. envoy Samantha Power demonstrated the new, safe way to greet people in Ebola-ravaged countries this week.

It's known as the 'Ebola handshake', which involves touching the person you're greeting with your elbow.

Ms Power, the U.S ambassador to the UN, touched elbows on Tuesday with Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf during a news conference in the city of Monrovia.


Ebola is spread through direct contact (through broken skin or through your eyes, nose, or mouth) with Blood and body fluids (like urine, feces, saliva, vomit, sweat, and semen) of a person who is sick with Ebola, or objects (like needles) that have been contaminated with the blood or body fluids of a person sick with Ebola.

Ms Power said she will return from West Africa to the United States and the United Nations on Thursday with a message of 'hope and possibility' that the global response to the Ebola outbreak is working, but more resources are needed.

But she warned: 'This is a crisis that is so vast, with needs so great, with potential consequences so dire that no country can afford to stand on the sidelines. A few are doing a lot. But a lot are doing very little, or nothing at all.'


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