Discuss here the issues with the recent outbreak of Ebola in Africa.
I'll start you off with a "What is Ebola virus?" link (same source as image used).
http://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-ebola-virus-25071
There's so much to discuss here as it pertains to the global picture.
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ReplyDeleteEbola's continual spread is causing mass fear among the world's population. This fear is clearly an issue on its own, as shown by the recent attack on health care workers in Guinea.
Eight bodies of journalists and Ebola educators were found in a village latrine after southeastern Guinea locals reportedly threw stones at them and in some cases slit their throats (1). Six people have been arrested since the incident but this is clearly part of a bigger problem. Gangs of machete-wielding residents have been fending off health care workers as they try to enter villages (2). Wabengou's chief has stated, "We don't want them in there at all". These people view westerners as carriers of the virus, fleeing at the site of a Red Cross truck, and would prefer to cut off all contact from the outside world.
The underlying root of this issue is education. The difference in African and Western cultures means that our concept of logic is vastly different from theirs. Despite the fact that the World Health Organization has stated that they need more trained workers in Africa (3), residents would still sooner turn to desperation than trust westerners. These cases of desperation go as far as buying the blood of Ebola survivors from the black market and hoping the antibodies will fight off the virus (4). Although the WHO is unsure whether or not this method could be effective, they are stressing the fact that the blood needs to go through proper testing and procedure before administered to patients.
Due to the treatment of international workers, the responsibility of education now falls into the hands of local government. The need for more workers can't been resolved until it is safe enough for them to enter the affected area, therefore action should be taken by the authorities to educate the locals or at least control the situation enough so the workers can do their job. Sierra Leone is taking steps to control the problem within their country by imposing a 3-day quarantine and having health and community workers seek out hidden Ebola patients (5). This kind of initiative needs to inspire other countries to embark on similar plans if we want to have any hope of controlling the virus before it becomes an even bigger threat.
1.) http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/09/18/us-health-ebbola-guinea-idINKBN0HD2JE20140918
2.) http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/28/world/africa/ebola-epidemic-west-africa-guinea.html?ref=africa&_r=1
3.) http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-south-african-quarantined-in-nigeria-tests-negative-for-ebola/2447389.html
4.) http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/18/health/ebola-blood-black-market/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
5.) http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/world/africa/sierra-leone-to-impose-widespread-ebola-quarantine.html?_r=0
Your post was really eye-epening about the extreme measures people will take in order to do what they believe is right. But do you think think the World Health Organization should maybe take different measures in administering their help if clearly it is not wanted?
DeleteI do agree with your statement in that education needs to be delivered to these local governments, educating the citizens. However, this will take a lot of time and money, which the locals do not have a lot of. Bringing in more international workers could be risky, however I feel it is necessary as this whole outbreak needs to end now - which is why I think that putting every potential ebola threat in quarantine an excellent solution.
DeleteThe fact that the local do not want to accept outside help is a big issue, and it's a difficult one to circumvent. Perhaps a good solution would be to education a select few cooperative locals that can then spread the knowledge on how to prevent Ebola spreading further and faster to others. Sending in more people could potentially cause them to become even more outraged, and less willing to accept help. If they really believe that westerners are the cause of the disease, their presence is just going to frighten them and cause more stress on locals trying to battle the virus.
DeleteI agree with Steve that yes, it will take a lot of time and money to bring in more education and international workers to these places but the fact is that we need to stop this now before it spreads to more areas of the world. Also as I've read in many different articles and as we've talked about in class, these places have cut off their travel and trade world-wide which is not helping their situation. As Reid stated, the mass outbreak could potentially be solely because of bad living conditions and by cutting of travel and trade they are cutting off any small amount of income that their countries might have been making.
DeleteEbola is so scary! Aren't you guys scared? I'm very scared. I watched the movie Contagion. This gets WAY worse before it gets better.
DeleteSimon, this is a grade-A post. I thoroughly agree that proper education of the affected regions is essential to containing the virus. Do you think, as educated North American citizens, that we would be able to handle the illness more effectively if it had been us who were infected?
In response to Destiny (below), from my personal gatherings I have found that a lot of people in developing nations (especially those in Africa), hold a certain hostility towards westerners. It's probably demoralizing as a nation to have to rely on others so heavily, and so I think a great stigma has raised in these nations towards North America, the States in particular, with the great divide being the colour of each nation's skin. I think that by denying the help of others, especially 'white people', they may be trying to stand on their own and fight their own problems. Do you think there's a way for North America could lend themselves to help without damaging pride?
In your own personal opinion, what would you do if you were a citizen of Guinea? Can you even imagine what it would be like? Being westerners ourselves it is hard to understand their way of thinking as we are 'educated', but I am curious as to why they would not want our education or help, as they know how threatening the disease is.
ReplyDeleteThis is my weekly post
ReplyDeleteThe Ebola virus is a mostly fatal virus spread through the contact of infected bodily fluids. Ebola fever causes fever and severe internal bleeding (1). Cases of Ebola were first brought out in 1976 but never this extreme (4). In West Africa there has been an Ebola outbreak, the worst in recorded history of this virus (2). According to plan Canada the virus rate is escalating and families are losing loved ones every day (3). As of September 14th 2014 5,357 cases of the Ebola virus have been recorded and of that 5,357, 2,630 have resulted in death (5). The virus has gotten so bad in Sierra Leone that there was a lockdown. The government encouraged the country’s six million residents to stay in their homes (6). The goal of this lockdown was to keep the Ebola virus from spreading or at least slow it down. The lockdown has concluded and was three days long (7). Before the lockdown was concluded it was discussed whether to extend the lockdown, but it concluded after three days like originally planned (8). It is not just the living with the disease; the dead bodies of Ebola victims are just as contagious as live ones (9). Ebola is a disease you wouldn’t wish upon anyone. The virus is spreading like wildfire and not enough is being done about it yet, North American governments should be doing as much as they can to help. Africa could only be the beginning, what if it escapes, where will it hit first? This is one of those situations where everybody needs to help each other out; we are one in the same. The harsh environment in Africa alone is tough enough. The poor souls who live there through all of its poverty and other economic issues have suffered enough. Okay now imagine a disease spreading too make their life even harder. What if this was our country? Would we be locked down too? Does our government have a different idea for stopping the spread of the disease?
1 http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/Ebola-fever?q=Ebola
2 https://plancanada.ca/stop-ebola?=&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=search&utm_campaign=ebola
3 https://plancanada.ca/stop-ebola?=&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=search&utm_campaign=ebola
4 http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/worst-ever-ebola-outbreak-by-the-numbers-1.2767239
5 http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/worst-ever-ebola-outbreak-by-the-numbers-1.2767239
6 http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/sierra-leone-reaches-final-day-of-ebola-lockdown/2014/09/21/bda83dec-4198-11e4-8042-aaff1640082e_story.html
7 http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/sierra-leone-reaches-final-day-of-ebola-lockdown/2014/09/21/bda83dec-4198-11e4-8042-aaff1640082e_story.html
8 http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/sierra-leone-reaches-final-day-of-ebola-lockdown/2014/09/21/bda83dec-4198-11e4-8042-aaff1640082e_story.html
9 http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/sierra-leone-reaches-final-day-of-ebola-lockdown/2014/09/21/bda83dec-4198-11e4-8042-aaff1640082e_story.html
Your post was interesting, and I wasn't aware before that the Ebola virus had been seen in 1976. The fact that it was seen in outbreaks previously makes me wonder, why is there still so much unknown about how to cure Ebola today? I agree that the fact that Ebola broke out in such a devastating way in Africa put even more strain on the people of a country who already have so much to deal with in their everyday lives. But your questions on what could possibly happen if our country were to be victim to the Ebola virus are really interesting. I think if the Ebola virus could gain foot in developed countries, the effects could be even more horrific. By looking at how quickly the virus spread just in small villages in remote countries, can you imagine what could happen if just a few people in a North American city were infected? In such a densely populated area, the Ebola virus could spread like wildfire. Would we be locked down? I think it's definitely possible. I know that in London during the summer, officials had already started setting up Ebola quarantine areas in airports to asses medical volunteers who return from any infected countries. This does show however that the governments of developed countries are focussing already on preventing the disease from reaching us, so that they do not have to go to such extreme measures if the virus were already infecting people.
DeleteWeekly Post n' Roast.
ReplyDeleteEbola is a lethal disease that can cause symptoms of nausea, vomiting, red eyes, chest pain and cough, and bleeding from the eyes. Though it is very lethal it is not as infectious as you might think. The disease can only be caught through direct contact of an infected other. Meaning it is not airborne even if you breath in air near infected others. During the 1995 outbreak in Congo, U.S Centers for disease control followed 27 infected people along with their families through normal everyday lives. There were no additional parties infected with Ebola, which concluded that unless you have someone with Ebola cough right in your face or have their blood spilled on to you, you cannot be infected.
This brings me to my next point. In Guinea, where the recent outbreak of Ebola has occurred, there are many small villages with small houses. Some houses with big families some with small, but either way they are all closely packed together, which leads me to believe that the large spread and many lives taken have been due to poor living conditions. Now even though they have been living there all of their life, and they are used to poor living conditions, it does not mean that it is easy for them. Now they also have to deal with a disease being spread amongst them. I believe that Ebola is very easy to control, and if they could get better living conditions, this pandemic would be non-existent.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/
http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/09/12/346114454/how-do-you-catch-ebola-by-air-sweat-or-water
https://www.google.ca/search?q=ebola+symptoms&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb&gfe_rd=cr&ei=cokfVKcmrMTyB4mdgeAE
I absolutely agree with the concept that if this disease occurred in the west instead of Africa, we probably wouldn't have in even heard about it. There has been a major lack of understanding on how this disease works among African populations, who still undergo traditional burial ceremonies despite the increased risk of transmission among dead bodies. Poor education and underwhelming acceptance of an already mediocre medical support system is creating problems that are unique to the third world.
Delete1.) http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-ebola-outbreak-so-bad-sierra-leone-emergency-quarantine-180952218/?no-ist
This is my weekly post.
ReplyDeleteI found Reid's post very interesting about the fact that it is probably so wide-spread due to poor and cramped living conditions. As he said, the virus is contracted by direct contact with an infected person and/or their blood/ bodily fluids. It can be contracted through air but "the risk of the disease spreading through air travel in particular is extremely low" (1). Perhaps it is in fact that the reason so many people have died is because of the fact that one person is infected and then the rest of their family gets infected as well. A huge contributing factor to this as well is that the families care for the sick and continue to wash the bodies of the infected dead as it is a "deeply rooted cultural practice" (1).
As Simon stated I do believe that the other reason why it is so wide-spread is because of lack of education. I found quite an interesting fact while researching:
"On August 2, an American infected with the virus was flown to the U.S. His transport was delicate--staff covered head to toe in nonporous hazmat suits placed the patient in an isolation pod for the flight. From the airport, he was transferred to Emory University in Atlanta, which has one of the country's four specially equipped isolation wards and staff specifically trained to handle highly infectious disease." (2)
This article also stated that despite the hype from American citizens, the two patients will "almost certainly" not bring Ebola to America and 'even if they did, the consequences would be minor" (2). I believe that the reason that Ebola has killed so many people in Africa is because the people are all over-reacting but at the same time they are not taking the safety precautions or changing their ways as the Westerners have been trying to get them to do.
In addition to this I believe that if Ebola ever did come to North America that we would most likely be safe as western researchers are already looking for cures (2). As well as this, we would also take MAJOR safety precautions and quarantine/ isolate any infected specimens so as not to spread it.
Sources:
1. http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=S1977078-0-6635&artno=0000365783&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=Ebola%20virus%20disease&title=Ebola%20Outbreak%3A%205%20Questions%20Answered&res=Y&ren=N&gov=N&lnk=N&ic=N
2.http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=S1977078-0-6610&artno=0000365223&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=ebola&title=The%20U%2ES%2E%20Is%20Sitting%20on%20Promising%20Ebola%20Vaccines&res=Y&ren=N&gov=N&lnk=N&ic=N