African Heads Discuss Dangerous Ebola

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ebola

WHEN ALL the heads of State of the 15 ECOWAS member states met in Accra for their 45th Ordinary Session in Accra on July 10, 2014, the outbreak of the deadly Ebola disease in West Africa was conspicuously topping the list of their agenda.

After extensive deliberations, the West African leaders admitted that indeed the haemorrhagic viral disease was a ?serious threat?. A communiqu? from the summit succinctly highlighted this collective opinion:

?The Authority highlights the serious threat of the continuous threat of the Ebola disease in the region which has so far claimed about 500 lives.?

At first glance, the number of fatalities may not be considered exactly huge, but when it is further explained that the 500 deaths are from 800 infections then the full gravity of the problem comes into clear perspective.

Since its first recorded case in February 2014 in Guinea Conakry, the disease has steadily crossed the borders of Guinea eastwards to neighbouring countries.

Data from international health organizations indicates that by March, the disease had crossed into Liberia and by April, Sierra Leone and Mali were experiencing their first cases.

Apparently, the virus is travelling at an alarming rate east of Guinea where the first outbreak was recorded.

On April 5, 2014 the disease was feared to have crossed into the easternmost peripherals of West Africa as suspicious cases of hemorrhagic fevers were recorded in Ghana.

In April, a 12-year-old girl died few days after contracting a fever caused by what Ghanaian health officials described as ?undetermined causes? at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi.

Two months later (Sunday July 6, 2014), the West African Rescue Association (WARA) airlifted an unnamed American man to Nyaho Clinic ? a state-of-the-art health centre located in the plush Airport Residential area in Accra. The American was alleged to have exhibited symptoms similar to hemorrhagic virus attack.

The unnamed American was said to have visited Sierra Leone and Liberia where Ebola outbreak has been officially confirmed.

But the Public Relations Officer of the Ghanaian Ministry of Health, Tony Goodman stated that there was no cause for alarm because test results of the victim from Ghana?s premiere health research institute, Nougochi Memorial Research Centre (NMRC), came out negative for Ebola.

?It [the test] was conclusive, it?s not Ebola,? stated Tony Goodman. Barely four days after his reported referral to Nyaho Clinic, the American died and was quickly buried. Even though health officials claim the test results came out negative for Ebola, they would not disclose the kind of haemorrhagic fever that killed its victim so swiftly.

Nyaho Clinic on July 7, issued a press statement shedding light on the incident.

The clinic conceded that the victim indeed, exhibited symptoms of haemorrhagic fever when he was brought in. ?An expatriate was transferred to the Centre Sunday, 6th July 2014 with symptoms suggestive of a haemorrhagic fever. The National Disease Surveillance Unit, the National Public Health Unit and the Regional Public Health Unit were immediately informed.?

Critics think it is just a matter of time for countries like Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria to record their own cases of Ebola.

Out of Control

Health charity, M?decins Sans Fronti?res (MSF) described the situation as ?totally out of control?, re-echoing a similar description given to the disease by a senior official of Doctors Without Borders who similarly stated that the West African Ebola outbreak was totally out of control.

MSF is working with the World Health Organisation to contain the rapidly spreading viral malady. MSF officials have concluded that the West African situation is the worst Ebola outbreak in history.

According to the WHO, the highest previous

death toll was in the first recorded Ebola outbreak in Congo in 1976, when 280 deaths were reported. According to experts, because Ebola often touches remote areas and the first cases sometimes go unrecognised, it is likely that there are deaths that go uncounted during outbreaks.

Five months after the first incident was recorded in Guinea, over 700 people are said to have been infected. The death toll is estimated above 455 people. It is estimated that the particular strain of Ebola ravaging West Africa has a fatality rate of 90 per cent.

?The reality is clear that the epidemic is now in a second wave,? Janssens said. ?And, for me, it is totally out of control,? Bart Janssens, the director of operations for the medical group in Brussels, told The Associated Press on Friday.

The Ebola virus, which causes internal bleeding and organ failure, spreads through direct contact with infected people. There is currently no cure or vaccine, so medical officers across the region have been confined to containing any potential outbreak by focusing on supportive care for the ill and isolating them to limit the spread of the virus.

?This is the highest outbreak on record and has the highest number of deaths, so this is unprecedented so far,? said Armand Sprecher, a public health specialist with Doctors Without Borders.

Ebola?s trump card

The current outbreak appears to be thwarting all efforts by health agencies to contain it. According to experts, difficulties faced in attempting to contain the outbreak include the outbreak?s multiple locations across country borders, inadequate precautions taken by medical personnel, African funeral practices involving close contact with the corpse, and a general lack of effective communication and awareness programmes by affected countries.

The multiple locations of the current outbreak and its movement across borders make it one of the ?most challenging Ebola outbreaks ever,? Fadela Chaib, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization, said earlier last week.

?There needs to be a real political commitment that this is a very big emergency,? he said. ?Otherwise, it will continue to spread, and for sure it will spread to more countries.?

In the paper, Jacobsen and fellow researchers affiliated with the Mercy Hospital Research Laboratory, which runs an infectious disease surveillance project in Sierra Leone, described the critical problems that are helping Ebola run rampant.

According to international health experts, Ebola whose symptom is mostly fever-like may exploit a more sinister conduit to spread across the region. For instance, most fevers are treated in the region at home using over-the-counter or traditional medicines.

There is very little incentive for the sick and dying to seek expensive medical care. This means that many Ebola cases could be going undetected, allowing the disease to spread.

Also, data sharing and other technological tools for tracking disease outbreaks are severely lacking in West Africa.

There is also a latent lack of access to protective equipment for the few doctors and nurses working in the region.

Political commitment

After the ECOWAS summit, several pledges and commitments were made by the heads of state. A solidarity fund has been ordered to be established and already, countries like Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have all made pledges towards the solidarity Fund.

?In this regard, Summit commends Nigeria?s contribution of USD3,500,000 as follows:

USD1,000,000 to Guinea, USD500,000 to Liberia, USD500,000 to Sierra Leone, USD500,000 to WAHO and USD1,000,000 to the ECOWAS Pool Fund for Ebola. The Summit, while accepting contribution of Nigeria appeals to other Member States as well as the International Community to contribute to the Solidarity Ebola fund,? the communiqu? stated.

?A major step was taken at this Summit to address in a firm and concrete manner the present danger of the Ebola outbreak in three Member States of our Community. A Fund to support the affected nations has already received immediate financial pledges and commitments. I wish to applaud the commitments of the leaders to support the West Africa Health Organisation and the affected countries,? stated President John Dramani Mahama, the current ECOWAS Chairman.

Interestingly, he has not made any immediate pledge to the fund.

The World Health Organisation says $10 million will be needed during the next six months to address the crisis?an amount less than the personal account of some of these heads of state. The amounts being committed for the fight against Ebola have been criticized as being mostly inadequate.

Some experts have however contended that throwing cash at the virus would not send it to oblivion, adding that logistical challenges are more pressing now than money.

Kathryn Jacobsen, the author of a new ?call to action? paper on Ebola published online in The Lancet stated: ?It?s important both to allocate resources for immediate containment activities and to prioritize longer-term capacity building that will improve future responses to Ebola?and other emerging infectious disease threats.?

Health charity MSF says health ministers from affected countries need to urgently improve public understanding of the disease, ?This requires an important mobilisation of all possible community leaders from bottom to top, because we cannot do this alone,? Bart Janssens noted.

?We are now dealing with an extraordinary situation so we need more resources to fight the epidemic and we need extra help to convince communities to change their attitudes towards the virus,? he stated in a mood reflecting the obvious difficulties that the fight against Ebola would present.

BY Raphael Ofori-Adeniran

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