In the midst of terrible Ebola news, there is some genuinely upbeat news as well: Nigeria and Senegal have both been declared Ebola free. In the case of Nigeria, where 8 people died of the disease, the World Health Organization calls the response astonishing epidemiological detective work. From NPR, this account: The fact that it went about tracing the contacts and tracking down every single person who may have come into contact first with Patrick Sawyer [who arrived in Nigeria with Ebola] and then with the clinic staff - the doctors and nurses. They started off with about 200 names that jumped up to almost 900, apparently, through tracking teams, then went to thousands and thousands of homes - 26,000, in the end - explaining, educating, getting people on side and saying, this is what you have to do and, of course, taking the temperatures of those who might have tested positive for Ebola. So in a way, it was a textbook case how things should be and how they went. It went well in Nigeria, thank goodness. I also recommend a very personal and moving story by New York Times journalist Helene Cooper, a Liberian by birth, on the stoicism and resiliance of Liberians, already battered by other horrors, in the face of the spreading disease and on the fate of her own family there. Heres just how it begins: Liberians have become accustomed to living with demons. Long before Ebola arrived, the people here endured 14 years of civil war, one that snuffed out 200,000 lives and ignited acts of barbarism that laid waste to the country. The war produced mad generals who led ritual sacrifices of children before going into battle, naked except for shoes and a gun. It produced amphetamine-fueled 10-year-old fighters wielding M16s while toting teddy bear backpacks, and rapists who wore Halloween masks and wedding gowns. When it finally ended in 2003, what was left was a nation of survivors, a place where nearly every person of a certain age has a painful story to tell. I know this all too well, as a native Liberian who emigrated to the United States. My family has our own war stories. One sister was kidnapped and fought to protect her 1-year-old son while marching for days behind rebel lines. Another sister sent her son away to avoid the war and spent two years — two years — hiding deep up country in an area known only as Territory 3C, far from the worst of the conflict, after witnessing gunmen disembowel a co-worker in front of his son. Tom npr.org/2014/10/20/357508947/nigeria-joins-senegal-in-gaining-ebola-free-status Heres the Cooper piece: nytimes/2014/10/20/world/africa/in-homeland-liberia-native-finds-resilience-amid-horror-.html
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 15:10:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015