• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

As Ebola stalks West Africa, medics fight mistrust, hostility

Hamster Buddha

Hamster Buddha

DP Veteran
Joined
Nov 15, 2013
Messages
3,675
Reaction score
1,237
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Libertarian
With all the hoop law going on about Ebola, I think it's important to understand why Ebola is so deadly, and this has NOTHING to do with how transmissible or severe the disease is.

As Ebola stalks West Africa, medics fight mistrust, hostility

A couple of quotes from the article:

Article said:
From Guinea, where the four-month-old outbreak claimed the first of more than 500 lives, to Sierra Leone, scores of patients are hiding away, believing hospitalization is a "death sentence".

In Guinea's southeastern Forest Region some terrified villagers are shutting off their communities to medical workers, even blocking roads and downing bridges.

Over the border in Liberia's Lofa County, health workers trying to screen two communities for the deadly disease were chased off by locals armed with cutlasses, knives, and stones, according to an internal U.N. report seen by Reuters.

In eastern Sierra Leone, police had to fire tear gas to stop relatives trying to recover bodies of Ebola victims for family burial - a serious contagion risk - amid popular suspicions the cadavers might be used for experiments or macabre rituals.

"We are seeing a lot of mistrust, intimidation and hostility from part of the population," Marc Poncin, emergency coordinator for medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Guinea, told Reuters.

The MSF treatment center at Gueckedou, 650 kilometers (400 miles) southeast of Conakry, was monitoring only one suspected case. Two weeks ago it had been treating around 25 Ebola patients.

But this was not, Poncin warned, because the disease was waning, but because he believed "dozens" of suspected cases were hiding out from medical teams in the surrounding forest region.

"What we are now seeing are villages closing themselves off, not allowing us to enter, sick people hidden in the community. They don't come and seek healthcare any more," he said.
Click to expand...

This disease will never become as big a threat in the US as it has in Africa primarily because the average American isn't having to be tear gassed away from morgues because their afraid doctors will be practicing Black Magic with the corpses. This isn't about race, it's about a lack of basic education and health care. The article also mentions that when proper treatment is given:

Article said:
In contrast, at a treatment center in Telimele in north Guinea, where more trusting patients had come forward earlier, the recovery rate was higher, over 75 percent, Poncin said.
Click to expand...

Bottom line, for all the hysterics going around, the only reason this is as severe in the affected countries has more to do with the countries themselves than it does the disease. Nigeria is another country that has reported cases of Ebola, however they have been able to contain it due in no small part to being one of wealthier countries in Sub-Saharan African.

In other words...

slow-down.jpeg
 
Very sad. It shows how ignorance and fear are the real enemies of progress and dealing with any problem.
 
I remain cautious, as pathogens have the uncanny ability to mutate and adapt, but I also understand enough science to know that ebola isn't even half as bad as most deadly diseases already out there.

I don't think we should let our guard down and become complacent about this disease, but at the same point this never-ending cycle of fearmongering has got to go.
 
25 percent mortality rate can still be significant if this situation is not handled properly.
 
Watching the Haz-Mat crew totally wrap the guy's vehicle in thick plastic gave me a slightly different perspective.

Makes me ponder all the purchases FEMA and other DHS agencies have made as of late....the militarzation of local LEO, etc.

But, I agree the hype,as usual, is over the top. 8)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom