“We have to prepare for the worst”. The worst would be the arrival of the Ebola virus in France. France has therefore just equipped itself with a “national prevention and control plan” against this hemorrhagic fever, relates the Figaro site. Admittedly, the scenario is unlikely. Nevertheless, to govern is to foresee… At the request of the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister, Louis Gautier, the Secretary General for Defense and National Security, has drawn up a “responsive, adaptable and extremely concrete” to prepare both for “the always possible entry into French territory of infected people”, but also to protect French people from abroad and “to take care of patients and contact cases in developing countries. epidemic situation”, specifies the plan presented on Monday.
Concretely, if the care establishments currently able to accommodate patients were to be overwhelmed, “at least sixty beds could be added to the around thirty already available”, specifies Le Figaro. Another hypothesis, if the situation requires an increase in diagnostic capacities, rapid response strip tests are being produced in the fourth quarter of 2014.
And if, always if, the panic returned… The Plan also envisages this hypothesis. “Such events, even limited ones, could however arouse fears in the world of work and in the public, being able indirectly to disturb the normal life of the population, even the operation of services, administrations or companies”, write the authors of the plan. Here too, everything is planned: monitoring the state of opinion and responding to rumors via traditional media and social networks, but also disseminating comprehensive information on the risks to the public, explaining the “why” of decisions. All while associating health professionals as a privileged relay to users. The lessons of the H1N1 flu epidemic have been learned.
