Sunday, August 24, 2014

EBOLA UP-DATE: WEST POINT TENSION, KISS OF THE DEATH, WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN LIBERIA



News about Ebola deadly virus has been trumpeted by most TV stations and other mass media in Europe, Asia and North America around the world. The French and Belgian Governments that have more interaction with African states have been leading so far in their briefing and sensitizing of their citizens. Médecins sans frontiers /Doctors without borders from France have been working relentlessly in Guinean, Sierra Leone and Liberia, particularly in the city of Monrovia with 1.3 million inhabitants. They are looking after some 150 patients in that city.



Frightened West Point District residents of Monrovia threatening to break out of the quarantined areas explain their apprehension.

Ebola and West Point District of Monrovia:
Outbreaks were predominantly in rural areas but have recently surfaced in urban areas. It is now in West Point Ward of Monrovia the capital city of Liberia. 

 Police Constable D. F. Forleh explaining why West Point Citizens had to be quarantined

West Point is a vast ghetto upon sea that was quarantined by the Liberian police this week because several cases were reported there. The inhabitants got agitated and many wanted to break out having food and water. Many expressed their anger that there were no food and adequate water ‘A hungry man is an angry man,’ some were shouting. According to a senior Liberian police officer, D. F. Forleh commander of the police force, the young agitators who did not adhere to the quarantine broke out and nearly overtook the police. Warning shots were fired in the air and in panic three were fatally injured as they fled by fences, chairs and other obstacles on their way.  It will be recalled that it was at the run-down West Point where tents housing some Ebola patients were ransacked by looters and contaminated materials stolen. The Liberian health Ministry thought that that was to cause more spread of the deadly virus and took drastic measures to contain this by quarantining the area.

More Help on the Way:
The good news is that some international help is coming into Africa to join others that had been working in makeshift laboratories as the Médecins sans frontiers, a French medical charity. These brave men and women at the forefront in the fight against Ebola put themselves at harm’s way. As local nurses, some foreign workers have been victims of Ebola virus. The US health workers Dr. Kent Brantly and his colleague Nancy Writebol who caught the virus was a cause for concern. They were flown back to the US, and treated with ZMAPP experimental drugs at Emory Hospital in Georgia. These recovered and were discharged on 21 August 2014. 

The US Food and Drug Administration have been carrying out clinical trial of vaccine using animal and some successful results have been had. There might be a glimmer of hope from this experimental drug, ZMAPP yet to have clinical trial that was administered to Dr. Brantly and Writebol pictured below. If the success of this is pursued, how fast could this be produced and shipped to Africa to stamp out this dreadful virus?
Dr Kent Brantly and co-worker Nancy Writebol survived the deadly Ebola virus.

Apart from this, other help is coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Government of President Joseph Kabilla that had had six cases of outbreaks of Ebola since this virus surfaced in his country. DRC Government that has had more experiences in handling it than any other Government in Africa sent some of their experts to help President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia Ideally. It is hoped that the Ugandan Government that had had Ebola outbreaks in the past and knew how to handle it would be giving a helping hand.

The Russian Government experts in epidemiology, bacteriology, and virology from Novosibirsk and Saratov also left for the Republic of Guinea on August 21, 2014. They will set up mobile laboratory camps where they will carry out quick scientific studies and tests of this deadly virus on the spot [www.rt.com/news/18864-russian-virologists-Ebola-laboratory. Russians are alleged to already have a vaccine against Ebola. If it were to be suggested, it should be a golden opportunity where   Russians, Americans and Europeans scientist could put their concerted efforts and team up to work together instead of duplicating services. It should not be left to be coordinated single-handedly by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Anxious West Point citizens explaining to a Government official why quarantine and curfew should be lifted.

Difficulties
It should be remarked that difficulties are having laboratory tests to determine if patients have actually contracted Ebola. Where patients are in the rural areas, where there had been reported cases of outbreak of Ebola, it meant that samples had to be taken to towns where there are laboratories before the results are ferried back to the location of the patients. Communication and bad roads’ difficulties make the work more difficult and before some are reached, it is too late. It should be recalled that if a patient is not treated immediately from the time he contracted this deadly virus, he or she has approximately 10 days after to survive if not attended to by experts. Fatality is so high that 7 out of 10 die and this has instilled extreme anxiety in many throughout West Africa, India and even around the world.  [Some areas literally take the no travel dictum seriously to the extent that there are no travels. The negative effect in the economies yet to be computed is still phenomenal]. If 7 out of 10 attacked die, the survival rate is only 30%.

In some cases, Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins sans frontiers had to ship samples from Liberia to Guinea before the results are returned to Liberia. Time wasted is a matter of life or death. It is for this reason that the coming of the Russians scientists with mobile laboratories is anxiously awaited too by the Liberian officials. On Friday 22, August, 2014 this organization was nursing 150 patients in Monrovia and that is a lot. Is Liberia the only country in West Africa having outbreaks of this hemorrhagic fever, Ebola?

Liberia is one out of many. Outbreaks were reported by the WHO in Guinea, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, and Uganda  in 2000.  The death so far this year is as follows:
Guinea 396,
Sierra Leone 374,
Nigeria 4,
 and Liberia 576.
The total number for West Africa affected is 2473.
This virus could be contained if people in the affected areas follow led down hygienic guides by health authorities. It is crucial to always wash hands with soap using boiled water where possible and refrains from habits that are likely to lead to contact with bodily fluids of affected persons or any person you have not know for a good while.. since March of 2014

Women, Children and Ebola.
Women have been the ones getting most of the brunt of this deadly virus. The second hardest hit are children. There are think tanks who have been questioning if that has got something to do with their immunity. Children and women’s immunity has nothing to do with it. It may be attributed to some of the factors outlined below:

·       It is due to the fact that in the African set up most of the women are naturally caretakers or nurses. A good number of them do the shopping, travel where they mingle with other peoples that are not necessarily related to them.

·       Apart from this most are house wives who receive their families when they return home from various duties during the day. Some embrace and kiss and that is the embrace or kiss of death. If their family members are ill they are the first to attend to them or nurse them and it is when the sicknesses are getting more serious that their family members are taken to the hospitals. It is ever late for most of them before they realize that they are also ill.

·       Most are not as educated as men. Remember that in some African milieus families prefer to send boys to school than girls, the consequences of this are manifested among adult population. We have learned of the case in the Islamized communities in the past in West Africa where girls were not even sent to school. This phenomenon is recently being accentuated by the infamous Boko Haram, Islamic fundamentalists who frighten the hell out of people by their brutal killing and merciless inflicting of punishment to non Muslims and those who would not conform to their archaic Hammurabi's draconian rules just as ISIS in the Middle East. How were the deprived women to learn of basic hygiene to even read that severe fatigue was a sign of Ebola coming and they had to seek medical attention.

·       Often these women are forbidden from interacting with non-family members and if these members are not informed they too remain uninformed. If they are forbidding interacting with foreigners, simply dialing of a phone to talk to a national nurse of the Ministry of health where they could get help from a hotline is restricted. You will now start piece together how some women’s hands are tied in the face of danger.

·       As for children, they are rank among the least informed and are likely to forget basic hygienic principles taught them at home or at school. Also, they are the first to meet and play with other children where they touch each other on playgrounds, market places and schools thereby contacting this virus. Accepting simple gifts from strangers is what most Western children would not do but in some of these societies, it is considered a sign of hospitality to offer gifts even to strangers. There are professional beggars in urban areas and what they receive may turn out to be what carries Ebola virus. So how should the health authorities tackle this? How could they prepare the society for a second coming of Ebola? Remember that it has surfaced and resurfaced in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Many still believe that they could get away with it and that what killed their relative has not similarities with Ebola disease virus. Before long they are affected. Thorough inculcation of hygiene and sensitization of the masses must be carried out at all cost. 

·       Lack of education, poverty and many more factors space does not allow us to elaborate here account for female patients in AIDS/HIV and Ebola affected areas outnumbering men. The case of immunity of persons based on gender is immaterial.

Dr. Viban Viban Ngo, Ph.D.
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About the Author: Viban Viban NGO, a Canadian You may contact him for further information by writing to him on Email vibanngo@yahoo.com URL http://www.flagbookscanadainternationalinc.com