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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