There is a sad reality that exists whereby those suffering from Ebola or at risk of contracting the deadly disease are competing for international headlines against those who are wilfully spreading evil across Iraq and Syria. The result is that in terms of column inches and video clips on television screens around the world, Ebola victims are squeezed out of airtime. And the net result is that their plight is also going unnoticed.
This, however, needs to change — and the faster the better. The World Health Organisation has sent out a clarion call that the current outbreak of Ebola in western Africa is at its tipping point. Unless urgent aid and expertise is focused on containing the outbreak in places such as Sierra Leone and Liberia, the disease will grow exponentially, claiming thousands more victims and making it much harder to contain. As it is, more than 2,200 have died from the latest outbreak that began in early spring. Under-funded and overextended medical missions have barely managed to keep the disease under control — and chaotic conditions on the ground in these under-developed and poorly financed nations have negated the best efforts at disease containment.
Yes, there is hope that a new range of medications currently being tested in Canada and western Europe will succeed in turning the tid for those so far infected and given the experimental drugs. Even then, mass production is months off, at the very best.
What is needed is a concerted and well-funded effort to fight Ebola. The people of western Africa deserve nothing less.
