Ebola: It's Overwhelming the Brave People Fighting It

This blog, obviously, is mostly concerned with climate change. And while the link between a warmer world and the spread of Ebola is becoming increasingly clear...

Ebola: This virus is lethal to humans and other primates, and has no cure. In addition, it is unclear where the disease, which causes fever, vomiting and internal or external bleeding, comes from—though scientists suspect fruit bats. What is clear is that outbreaks tend to follow unusual downpours or droughts in central Africa—a likely result of climate change.

...I am going to set that mantle down in this post in order to talk strictly about the urgency of this most-recent hemorrhagic fever outbreak. If we've all assumed that the sickness is nothing more than a bad Hollywood movie premise or plot device that will never affect us, well then, we better get over that quick. And by "quick" I mean right now.

What Has Changed
Unless your front door opens onto a tunnel that leads to the sheltering seclusion under a giant rock, you've probably heard or read about confirmed and suspected Ebola victims being treated in the US, Canada, and Europe, after getting sick in Africa. Thankfully, their prognoses in modern medical facilities after receiving an experimental treatment are good, but the arrival of the first Ebola victims to our own hospitals should alert you that something is different now. This recent outbreak in West Africa has reportedly taken over 900 lives, and therefore is the deadliest on record. While influenza, HIV, and cholera, among other infectious diseases, can and do claim more lives, it is precisely the location of this latest epidemic that should worry us all equally nonetheless. Starting in Sierra Leone, the virus has expanded into Guinea, Liberia, and Nigeria, which are some of the more densely-populated and underdeveloped countries in all of Africa, and therefore, as far as underdevelopment goes at least, the world, some with vast majorities living under the international poverty line. Hopefully, I need not impress upon anyone too strongly that this is a far from promising situation not entirely conducive to containment.

The Battle
You may or may not remember that here in America we've actually experienced at least two incidents involving Ebola. Luckily, the infected monkeys in both instances carried a strain that does not make humans seriously sick, unlike this latest Zaire strain. And luck was all that prevented what could have been a very serious health crisis.

In Africa, the story has been very different. Since Ebola's discovery in 1976, the various strains of the virus, with mortality rates up to 90%, have claimed over two thousand lives, with recent events nearly doubling the total.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has spearheaded efforts to bring the spread under control, but it is pleading with the international community to help, because it does not have enough resources and funding for effective treatment and containment on its own.

MSF currently has 676 staff working in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, but warns that it has reached its limit in terms of staff, and urges the WHO, health authorities and other organisations to scale up their response.

Over 60 healthcare workers have died from the disease in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. These people should be remembered as heroes who sacrificed everything treating the sick and preventing others from getting sick, but, unfortunately, superstitious beliefs are portraying them as the enemy. I won't belabor the point, but I do believe I've already strongly stated my opinion on the origins of such intellectually-debilitating madness.

MSF is not the only organization which cannot meet the demands of such an intense outbreak alone. The World Health Organization itself lacks the funds to respond properly. For more on that, as well as the challenges involved in the struggle, have a listen to this Science Friday report.

What Can Be Done
One thing on our side thus far is Ebola cannot be as easily contracted as crappy Hollywood movies depict. It's not an airborne virus, or a pathogen like malaria or West Nile that gets spread quickly and far and wide by biting insects. To the best of our knowledge, it can only be passed from host to host by contact with bodily fluids, or contaminated implements, so with correct medical procedures and protocols in place it can be contained, and we can provide ourselves the time required to come up with a cure. However, as the Science Friday piece mentions, implementing those procedures can be prohibitively-expensive and sometimes impossible in Third World nations. But, perhaps more troubling, is the fact that Ebola's location and low death toll relative to other infectious diseases, has led to a systematic shuffling of feet.

Pharmaceutical companies have little incentive to pour research and development dollars into curing a disease that surfaces sporadically in low-income, African countries. They aren't likely to see a large pay-off at the end — and could stand to lose money.

We've wasted enough time and watched enough people die already. Whatever it takes, even injections of cash, we need to break through this medical industry inertia.