EBOLA: WAS THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY REACTION SUFFICIENT?

By Evans Dakwa

With symptoms ranging from painful muscles, fever, sore throat and a headache followed by vomiting, diarrhoea and rush leading to decreased functionality of the liver and kidneys. Subsequent bleeding from both internal and external body parts follow and the inevitable happens; Death which occurs from a ranging period of 6 to 16 days. This is the Ebola Virus Disease for you.

Ebola as it is widely referred to is known has no cure and is documented to have first announced its arrival to mother earth in the year 1976 in the then Zaire now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on the continent of Africa. Back then the virus was traced to wild animals particularly monkeys who were the host before passing the lethal virus to human beings. 284 people are recorded as having been infected initially with a mortality rate of about 53 percent, that’s just over half of the people infected dying.

The first outbreak was followed by another one a few months later were 318 people were officially recorded to have been infected with a mortality rate of about a staggering 88 percent. Several other sporadic outbreaks followed but all of them were successfully brought under control and mostly did not spread beyond the borders of the first port country of infection.

Fast track events to the year 2014, the world is faced with an unprecedented Ebola outbreak like never before with over 4000 deaths being recorded already and apparently; still counting. What started as a single nation outbreak in Guinea around March, has spread to Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal and DRC in Africa; Spain in Europe and United States in the America in the process infecting over 8000 people(most of whom in Africa) with seemingly no solution in sight to bring the disease under control. Experts are estimating we could be having as high as 10 000 new cases very soon if the situation continues unabated.

The spreading of Ebola is said by experts to thrive in overpopulated dingy surroundings; the more reason why Africa has been the most affected considering how impoverished most African countries are. Suddenly the whole world is on high alert. Ebola’s rapid spreading is largely due to the disease being highly contagious and the  virus can survive on dry surface infecting anyone who comes into contact with the contaminated surface.

Critics like me will always raise poignant questions as to why the current Ebola outbreak is proving so hard to bring under control than previous ones, this, let’s not forget coming at a time when the world is supposedly technologically advanced to levels of preserving a female egg to be used by infertile women. How could a persistently war torn, impoverished and close to failed state (if not one) nation like DRC manage to bring Ebola under control yet the whole world is seemingly struggling.

People have come up with different schools of thought to answer the above question, with some who have a wild imagination pointing to the issue of a biological war at play (which is not impossible). However even though one would be tempted to proffer that school thought l prefer to answer it in a more realistic and provable way- the international community was slow in reacting to the epidemic.

When the first cases where announced in Guinea, it appears the international community looked at it being a West African problem that was of not much interest to them. A more rapid response from the international community could have brought the disease under control. Now Ebola has spread to three continents, threatening humanity. The whole world was fully aware from the onset that the West African nations affected where in no capacity to deal with this life threatening virus on their own but was lackadaisical in offering the much needed assistance. The first Ebola world conference was held months after the first cases where reported in March.

The more economically developed nations have let the whole world down in this fight against Ebola. China and United States even have the audacity to throw jabs at each other accusing one another of not doing enough tantamount to using the now near pandemic Ebola, to score a couple of points over one another.

This is not what West Africa and the whole world need right now. We need the spirit of a global village to reign supreme over any personal interest. Massive investments have been made into Ebola screening mechanisms which experts have indicated is not the solution to bringing Ebola under control. For all we know the screening process is not reliable and people carrying the virus can evade the detection. It is a clear case of resource diversion; resources that could be put to better use in the front lines to fight the disease. It is trying to create a sense of false hope among the populace that they are safe yet that is not the case.

The whole world simply has to come together, place our priorities right, be more proactive than reactive or we risk being wiped off the face of earth by an epidemic that is threatening to surpass the levels reached by cancer and HIV/ AIDS.