Food for Thought on Ebola in Western Africa

[10cadrienne]

As an aspiring Registered Nurse, I felt the need to do some more research on the Ebola Virus Disease. 

Recently, the outbreaks of Ebola throughout the United States have been portrayed in the media. It all started with Thomas Eric Duncan, who was previously in Monrovia, Liberia before he entered the United States. Liberia is a Western African country, and unfortunately, has been experiencing an Ebola outbreak. When a person contracts Ebola (Duncan in this case), they are asymptomatic for about 2-21 days. Therefore, Duncan did not realize he was sick once he was admitted into America. Eventually, he fell ill and was admitted into the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Texas. He was eventually diagnosed with Ebola, and was placed under intensive care. Two other nurses managed to contract Ebola while taking care of him, and they have been transferred to separate hospitals in the United States. Duncan died earlier this month, on October 8th. 

With that in mind, the United States has experienced three Ebola outbreaks. The media has been trying its best to raise awareness for the disease, and everyone in the United States is deeply concerned. Of course, the people of our country are worried that another Ebola outbreak will strike. However, has anyone ever thought about how Ebola is in West Africa? 

On October 16th, 2014, Ben C. Solomon posted a documentary called Ebola Ambulance on The New York Times' website. It was filmed in Monrovia, Liberia, where Thomas Eric Duncan was from. 

The documentary can be found by clicking here. Please watch it.

Solomon interviews an Ambulance Nurse named Gordon, who struggles every single day with saving the lives of people in Monrovia. In Liberia alone, there have been more than 4,000 reported cases of Ebola. The city is populated with about 1.5 million people. More than 2,300 of these people die, just because they did not receive medical attention after contracting Ebola. It is extremely difficult for Ambulance Nurses to save people. There are about 15 active ambulance teams. There are only three emergency healthcare centers in Monrovia. Each can hold about 50 patients only. Sometimes, medical officials have to deny patients because all the beds in the center are full. These patients are not admitted and are sent home, without receiving proper care and treatment. What happens to them the next day? They die.

As you can see, Ebola is INCREDIBLY critical in countries like Liberia... and it is definitely worse there than in the United States. Gordon says, "Any little mistake you make, you're going to be down with the virus." 

What are some of your thoughts on this? 

[10plauren]

I didn’t know what it was like in Monrovia before, and I find this completely terrible. There are even some people on the streets and online that almost talk about Ebola as though it is a joke. They have no real concern for the matter and seeing this documentary made me want to help. I think it is really inspiring about those who want to be in the field of disease and help those in need. There needs to be more participation in terms of helping Monrovia with this issue, and not just hoping it doesn’t get to where you live.
If the heads of these countries bring their advances in medicine and science together, we might even be able to find something that would help quicker then each looking on their own. It is terrible knowing how many have died just because of not being able to receive treatment. Ebola is a terrible disease and no more people should die because they are sent home! The conditions are not okay for these people and there needs to be something done about it. If there is a chance for us to help, people should.
If the media raises more awareness about this disease, it might be able to get the public more involved and have them understand about how critical it is in other countries. It’s sad to think that there are tragedies going on in different parts of the world but sometimes people don’t do anything about it until they get affected directly.

[6qisabela]

I was thinking about this earlier today, how Ebola is being thought of as such a joke. You log onto twitter and there are Ebola jokes being retweeted every 3 minutes. Ebola is gaining a lot of recognition especially on social media, however they usually aren't posts of concern. When Ebola trends on twitter, the majority are jokes. Sure Ebola is being heavily monitored by the government, but why is Ebola being thought of as something so small among the common population?

People don't think about how this can impact them considering they don't know the victims personally. However making jokes about the disease is making jokes about its persistence, its existence, and its victims. Ebola isn't spread like common diseases and is not contagious, but cancer isn't contagious either yet no one makes fun of cancer or cancer victims/survivors. Why, because cancer happens to people they know? Because cancer affects those close to us? Of course. But just because we don't personally know the countless faces of African victims doesn't mean we should treat Ebola as just a complete joke.

[10zqueena]

As a person who also wants to go into the medical field I have done my fair search on the facts and symptoms of ebola. I can admit I have said the jokes about ebola but this is just how our society is today. The situation was also the same when north Korea was planning to "attack" us. I feel like ebola is a very serious disease that everyone should take seriously considering they can eventually get it. I also feel like there is more the u.s and other countries can do to help Africa fight the disease. Overall I think that people understand the fact that ebola is a a serious topic but they make jokes so that it doesn't become so hard on the society.

[6cmaya]

This epidemic clearly is showing how we react to issues as serious as this one. It is disgusting how people are making memes about a virus that is taking away the lives of thousands and thousands. It has killed over 4,800 people! When I go onto social media I rarely see petitions to raise money for victims or awareness. It is not just everyday people that are showing disrespect to the lives of these people but a number of news casters and politicians. For example Michael Savage said that he believed President Obama is letting Ebola into the US because he has a war on white people. www.rightwingwatch.org/content/michael-savage-obama-wants-bring-ebola-epidemic-america-should-resign
Statements like these make me worry that others may think like this! I also wonder if this 4,800 people that have died because of this deadly virus were white how the media would react? Would it still be a joke. I think it wouldn't . Instead of constantly reporting about the 4 Americans that have been reported with Ebola we should raise as much awareness for the thousands of lives that been lost in the predominantly infected nations. Share the stories of people like Fela Kuti who managed to care for all of four of her family members that were infected with the virus, without infecting herself. www.cnn.com/2014/09/25/health/ebola-fatu-family/