Daily Times

Just the mere mention of the word ‘Ebola’ is enough to send shivers down one’s spine. Also known as haemorrhagic fever, it is fatal 90 percent of the time once contracted. Spread via close body contact with an infected person, particularly through bodily fluids, it is a highly contagious disease and is currently wreaking havoc in Sierre Leone, Guinea and Liberia, where it has claimed some 729 lives and has infected as many as 1,300. There is no known treatment, vaccine or cure. This is the worst outbreak of Ebola in history. Ebola has usually been limited to remote villages in central and west Africa but now it is spreading like wildfire, with governmental authorities and the World Health Organisation (WHO) rushing to curb the disease. Even healthcare workers are not safe. The leading doctor treating Ebola patients in Sierre Leone, Dr Sheik Umar Khan, contracted the virus whilst working tirelessly with those who had contracted the illness. He has died, aged 39, and the nation has called him a “national hero”. One patient has died in Nigeria after travelling to the country from an Ebola hotspot. Two foreign healthcare workers have also contracted the virus, leading foreign aid agencies to recall their workers. It is a nightmare scenario and one wonders why the response is still not up to par with the deadliness of the virus.

WHO has voiced its concern at the fact that Ebola is spreading far faster than it is being curbed but it still has not issued any international travel bans on the residents of the places where Ebola is most widespread. There are some airlines that have stopped flights into Liberia and Sierre Leone but the international aviation authorities have not made any move to halt flights. The zones where Ebola is most prevalent are being quarantined and there is talk of putting in body temperature checks at airports. But is this enough? We have seen the rapid spread of polio in our own country and the swift international response in imposing travel curbs on us. Perhaps a similar response to this deadly virus is the need of the hour. The US and UK governments are holding hasty meetings to make sure that Ebola does not enter their territories. It only takes one infected person to infect a host of others and, seeing that Ebola can kill within weeks, we may be looking at an all out epidemic. The world is so interconnected in this day and age of global travel that there is no surefire way to isolate such a pathogen. However, staying vigilant is key. It is hoped these African countries can do just that. *