Gloves and other appropriate protective clothing should be worn, and care taken when handling sick animals or their tissues. Healthcare workers looking after patients with suspected or confirmed RVF should employ universal precautions when taking and processing specimens from patients. Hospitalized patients should be nursed using barrier techniques. As noted above, laboratory workers are at risk, so samples taken for diagnosis from suspected human and animal cases of RVF should be handled by trained staff and processed in suitably equipped laboratories. Other approaches to the control of disease involve protection from and control of the mosquito vectors.
Personal protection is important and effective.
Where appropriate, individuals should wear protective clothing, such as long shirts and trousers, use bednets and insect repellent, and avoid outdoor activity at peak biting times of the vector species. Measures to control mosquitoes during outbreaks, e.g., use of insecticides, are effective if conditions allow access to mosquito breeding sites. New systems that monitor variations in climatic conditions are being applied to give advance warning of impending outbreaks by signalling events which may lead to increases in mosquito numbers. Such warnings will allow authorities to implement measures to avert an impending epidemic.