WASHINGTON POST
An alarming report released last week by Doctors Without Borders said that West Africa's current Ebola outbreak is "out of control." That should shock the governments of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia into action. It marks a frightening moment for a disease that has been contained numerous times before.
The outbreak, already the deadliest in history, had killed almost 400 people as of Thursday. It began in March but then slowed, causing the Guinean president to declare to the World Health Organization (WHO) in April that "the situation is well in hand." But all was not well, and complacency led to relaxed measures and a second surge. More than 600 cases have now been reported, with the patients experiencing headache, fever and internal and external bleeding. The virus, which leaps from person to person through contact with bodily fluids, kills up to 90 percent of the people it infects.
Unlike some viruses--including the one causing Middle East respiratory syndrome--Ebola is not new. It was discovered in 1976, and small outbreaks have been recorded occasionally since then. No cure exists, but medical teams have always effectively segregated infected areas and stopped its spread. The method is understood: treat the patients, trace their contacts and isolate the sick.
But West Africa had not seen a major Ebola outbreak and was unprepared. Its public-health infrastructure is weak. There was no quick incident response system with a command-and-control structure, and no comprehensive public health plan for a mobile population. In the early stages of the crisis, Guinea buckled under economic and political pressure. To this day, the health ministries of the three countries lack effective ways to build public awareness.
Among the biggest challenges is the public's reluctance to cooperate. A stigma attaches to those who are infected, and so families hide the sick, making it more difficult to trace contacts. A death can lead to a dozen more infections among those who clean and prepare the body for the funeral.
Editorial on 07/01/2014