Be sure to read the last paragraph!! From Peter Piot, a leading expert on Ebola: The current Ebola epidemic is unprecedented. Over 7,000 cases and more than 3,300 deaths so far. Its the first time that entire nations are affected; its the first time that capital cities with huge urban populations are involved. And its the first time the virus has been diagnosed outside of Africa. In the 38 years since I worked with Ebola, I never thought that the virus would take this kind of dimension, turning from a small outbreak into a horrifying humanitarian crisis. Thinking back to the initial work of our international team in 1976 in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of the Congo (what was then Zaire), all the lessons we learnt as we pieced together how this devastating virus was being spread are still applicable today. How the virus spreads is no longer a mystery, and we knew exactly how to prevent previous Ebola outbreaks. However, such measures have not succeeded in stopping the current epidemic in West Africa -- to a large extent because they were initiated too slowly and at an insufficient scale. We urgently need to scale up the provision of skills and resources to bring the humanitarian catastrophe under control. We must build field hospitals and Ebola care units, send health-care staff, medical supplies and logistical coordination, as well as supporting governments and NGOs to stop Ebola transmission through community mobilization to avoid risky funeral and care practices. -- London, October 2014
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 18:13:56 +0000
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