2019 Edition Vol 6 Issue 21 DIGITAL

Health
Ebola
virus
and its
Challenges in
2019
By Ogo Ubabukoh
A story had it that a man was
seriously ill for weeks and all
treatments seemed not to produce
any effective results. After many trials
and errors, the man and his wife went
for an elaborate test, which eventually
revealed the unexpected bad news.
Afraid to break the shocking news to
the man, the doctor called his wife
aside and broke the news.
“God is wonderful. He has done it
again for me.” The woman shouted,
dancing.
Confused, the doctor had to repeat
the result of the test to her, albeit to
the hearing of her husband, who was
looking anxiously but confused, waiting
to know the outcome of the test.
“Didn’t you hear what the doctor said,
woman?” The visibly sad husband
shouted at his wife angrily
“Thank God it is only Aids, not Ebola.”
She responded happily.
While sympathizing with the man who was
diagnosed with Aids, the reaction of his wife
shows clearly how dangerous and deadly
Ebola is and people’s attitude towards it. Presently,
Aids is no more considered as deadly
as before. With the latest drugs against Aids,
infected persons can live longer and a normal
life. On the other hand, Ebola has taken over
as one of the world’s most dangerous diseases
today. First discovered in 1976, although it
is believed to have been in existence since
10,000 years ago, Ebola is an infectious viral
disease that affects both humans and nonhuman
primates, such as chimpanzees, monkeys,
and gorillas. It has become the most terrifying
epidemic of the last years, responsible for
11,300 and 28,000 infected victims. ) people.
Of the five species of Ebola virus, it is believed
that four types, mostly found around Zaire,
Bundibugyo, Taï and Sudan are not only the
most deadly, but they equally caused the most
outbreaks. Cases of such an outbreak were in
West Africa countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia
and Guinea.
What makes Ebola worrisome as we struggle
with the virus in 2019, is the fact that the
affected regions lack quality health systems
to combat the outbreak. With the affected
areas in economic malaise due to blatant
corruption, mismanagement, coupled with
instability, the prospect of combating an Ebola
outbreak in Africa can be challenging. The
latest outbreak of Ebola in the conflict-torn
North Kivu, in the North-Eastern Democratic
Republic of the Congo, shows how dangerous
and deadly the virus can easily spread – and
how helpless the health workers can be as
well. With more than 574 cases recorded and
347 deaths reported, the future is not promising.
Worse still, the conflict in DRC makes it a
big threat and unsafe for aid workers to tackle
the virus. Not even the presence of the UNO
peacekeepers in North Kivu (DRC) for nearly
two decades, offers much help or hope in the
efforts to tackle the spread of the deadly virus.
Apart from little effort from the government
in DRC to solve the Ebola challenges, some
of the affected areas are simply too dangerous
for even the most die-hard medical workers
to venture into. Some infected people who
have been diagnosed have fled the area due
to war, making them more likely to die of the
virus. Furthermore, other uninfected people
are not only exposed to the virus, but the
whole country and other non-indigenes, who
may have visited the affected area or had contact
with infected people will also most likely
spread the virus to other parts of the world.
What is frightening is that the outbreak of
Ebola in highly populated areas comes with
not only health challenges, it is easy to infect
many and claim many innocent lives. As of
2018, it became apparent that Ebola is rapidly
spreading to both Butembo and Goma both
in the DRC. What is scary is that while Butembo
has a population of a million people;
Goma, on the other hand, is a major transportation
city for other East Africa countries. We
all know the implications.
But what about other parts of the world?
Ebola is transmitted from human to human
through direct contact. The virus can be
transmitted when bodily fluids, like stool, saliva,
sweat, semen of infected patients or bodies
come in contact with mucous membranes of a
non-infected person. Typical initial symptoms
start 2 to 21 days after one is infected. Like
other virus infections, fever, weakness and
joint pain are typical of Ebola. Those signs are
followed by other symptoms like diarrhoea,
vomiting, vital organ failures and sometimes,
both internal and external bleeding. However,
despite this scary scenario and deadly outcome,
Health experts think Ebola infection
rates are considerably lower than for other
diseases because the virus survives a bit more
than 30 seconds outside a bodily fluid. Regardless,
that is not a reason to be jubilant.
But apart from the concern about the spread
of the virus in other cities, some health
workers have questioned the availability of
the much-needed vaccine to combat the outbreak
of the virus. It is believed that Merck,
the producer of the vaccine against the Ebola
virus has just about 300,000 doses available.
This calls the attention of the World Health
Organisation to make sure enough vaccine
doses are available and kept in stock in case of
an unexpected outbreak.
Clearly, we need the collaboration and assistance
of everyone to enable us to fight and
defeat Ebola virus disease in the year 2019.
Otherwise, it might be in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leona,
Guinea today, tomorrow it could be next to
your door.
6 Kata kata cartoon magazine Issue 21 2019 www.katakata.org