Friday, November 1, 2024

Ebola is still killing Africans: we should not forget

A little less than two years ago Ebola hit parts of West Africa.

It took a very long time for the world to respond.

By the time the world took notice, many lives had been lost and the economies of the affected countries, most notably Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone were essentially in ruins.

Thanks to attention that the outbreak received from media in the developed countries, many of the governments of those countries took notice and started sending response teams and other relief measures.
The United States for example sent not just equipment but also its military.

That was in addition to countless volunteers from charitable organisations.

The United Kingdom also joined as did other countries.

It is important to never forget that some of the volunteers from those countries eventually paid the ultimate sacrifice after they themselves caught Ebola. It is disappointing that Africa and African countries failed to mount a systematic response to help other African countries when they were most in need.

This is not surprising given that Africa has come to accept that solutions to the continent’s problems will have to come from outside.

The African Union, while it did try to coordinate response efforts could certainly have done more.

Not for the first time political leaders across the continent failed their people.

It would be wrong to attribute it all to a shortage of resource.

More of it was fear and a lack of understanding of the disease.

There was also a feeling among some that the situation was happening so far away that it was of no concern to them.

That mentality is really dragging Africa behind.

Many forms of assistance to the affected countries only started flowing in after overseas countries had themselves arrived on the scene.

As we speak the cameras have left, but the truth of the matter is that Ebola remains. And it continues to kill multitudes of Africans.

As per the last official country the number of people dead from the virus had surpassed  ten thousands.
If this is not a tragedy then, we have no idea what is.

In some instances the epidemic has become deadlier than when the world’s whole attention was fixated on the catastrophe.

The fact that we no longer hear about on cable news channels does not in any way mean that Ebola has been defeated.

Other than fighting the disease African countries have to come up with a package that would restore the economies of the affected countries to pre-Ebola status.

The International Monetary Fund has estimated that the impact on the economies of those countries will take very long to reverse.

That is scary, especially given that some of the most affected countries were only just emerging from civil wars.
Having said that we should continue to recognise countries, organisations and individuals that have contributed efforts towards Ebola.

It is only when we recognise and acknowledge such individuals that we may overcome what is fashionably called Ebola fatigue.

RELATED STORIES

Read this week's paper