I came across this
interesting article in my local newspaper of The Boston Globe while searching
for recent infectious diseases in our world. The disease of Ebola has a similar
characteristic to the Black Death that we studied earlier in the year in our
History and Science of Epidemic Disease class. This characteristic is that
people can still catch the disease from the people who have succumbed to the
disease. The title of this article is “Ebola Outbreak Kills 15 in eastern Congo”
and it was written by Melanie Gouby of the Boston Globe on September 9th,
2012. The full article can be located at http://www.boston.com/news/world/africa/2012/09/09/ebola-outbreak-kills-eastern-congo/oZmrpbFUE3E41JRelDdwtL/story.html.
Melanie Gouby discusses
the Ebola epidemic that has been going on for around a century now in the
Congo. It recently has just taken 15 lives in the month of September this year.
She writes that the spread of the disease is caused by the wrong practice of
washing the dead body of the person who contracted and succumbed to the disease
because the disease can still spread even though the host is not living.
The Ebola outbreak in this
article has affected the eastern Congo, specifically the towns of Isiro and Viadana.
The spread of the disease is caused by funeral practices of the people that
live in the area. They do not wash the corpses before funerals and if they come
into contact with other people, which is very likely, then the people that
attend the funeral and come into contact with the body in the open casket are
likely to get the disease. Many people in the area don’t have a well enough
understanding of Ebola. “Ebola entered my house and I did not know what it
was,’’ said Gabriel Libina Alandato, who survived the disease. She later said
that she learned more about the disease when she was under quarantine.
The ignorance of the Ebola
outbreak is very serious and is known to cause a large amount of deaths at a
time. Eugène Kabambi a spokesperson for the WHO in the region said ‘‘There is
enough local expertise to manage the crisis. Local medical staff knows what to
do,’’. The Congo has been experiencing Ebola outbreaks since it was first
discovered in the country in 1976. Also radio broadcasts are being used more
frequently to aware the public of the dangerous disease.
The disease has spread
from the village of Isiro to the vilalfe of Viadana because of a woman, who
contracted the disease at a funeral she attended in Isiro. The woman ended up
spreading the disease to several people then succumbing to the disease herself.
Several people in the area who might have come into contact with the woman were
quarantined as a public health measure and to help treat the victim of the
hemorrhagic fever. The disease causes severe
internal bleeding, there is no cure. However, it is treated with antibiotics
and hydrating with water and electrolytes to stop dehydration.
The quote that caught my
attention in this article was when a native woman said ‘‘It was horrible, it is
a miracle I survived. But I can’t forget what happened. I don’t understand why
my daughters died and I survived,’. Also another quote that caught my attention
in this article was when Faïda Kanyombe, a local said ‘‘Even if it is not the
first epidemic in Congo, it is the first one here. People had just heard about
it and at the beginning they thought the deaths were due to poisoning because
the disease has the same symptoms as a local poison,’’.
After reading this article
I felt that our government and other governments around the world should pay
attention to African countries such as the Congo, where the deadly disease of
Ebola and a few other diseases run rampant on the inhabitants of the continent.
There was a lot of ignorance with the disease because people who go through the
grieving process of a funeral, which was unsanitary, would be susceptible to
the disease because the corpses weren’t washed. Even though there is no cure
for Ebola I am glad to hear that the villages in the eastern Congo can take
public health measures such as quarantine to help prevent the spread of the
disease. Also the WHO is providing some help in providing necessary medical
equipment to help Ebola victims.
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ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting article. When most people think about diseases and getting sick from other people, we rarely consider that someone could still be contagious even after death. It is definately a scary thought that when grieving and paying your respect for someone at their funeral, you could catch the very disease that killed them.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that we should pay attention to how these things happen in places around the world. Most of the people affected by this do not understand how it works or why they got the disease, and the simple knowledge of how it is transmitted would be enough for them to change their funeral practices and could cut down on the spread of the disease substantially. A little knowledge goes a long way with these things.
I think this article is very interesting. I have heard of Ebola, but never really knew what it was. I agree with you when you say that the US and other countries governments should get involved with Congo and try to help them out, especially since it is Congo, a country that is very poor and has been struck with violence and disease many times. It is interesting that you can cure Ebola by hydrating just like Cholera, our most recent unit's topic. Even though there is a treatment, it is probably hard for the people infected to treat it because of lack of resources due to the poverty in the Congo. In some remote areas it is probably hard to receive treatments and antibiotics and proper fluids. Both of those quotes, I agree are very sad. There is such little knowledge of Ebola in these places that are effected. I think it is important that the Congo recieves proper treatments but also knowledge about this epidemic as well.
ReplyDeleteThis article is sad and scary. Ebola is very deadly, and since there is no cure, it must be very hard for people living near outbreaks to not worry constantly. It's sad that when someone who died from Ebola dies, the others are at risk just by honoring their death. Also, I can't even imagine what it would like to be in quarantine when I am already feeling sick enough.
ReplyDeleteThis article is very interesting. I had no previous knowledge of Ebola, so all this information was new to me. Ebola seems to be a disease that could easily be prevented with a fairly simple end to the epidemic. However, it seems that very few people in the Congo are educated on how to properly handle a person’s body after they die or about the dangers that lie hidden. Any disease with no cure is heartbreaking, but this one especially pulls at your heart because it could easily be prevented.
ReplyDeleteThis article was very interesting to me. I thought that it was very similar to some of the beliefs about the Black Death as well which helps relate it to what we have learned in class. The thought that the disease was caused by a poisoning and the disease is can be contracted from those who have perished from the disease show two commonalities. I was also taken back by some of the quotes you mentioned in your analysis. It seems as though this disease is not very well known in the Congo and people are very confused about it.
ReplyDelete