Let me say that if the international communitys response to a true pandemic disease in Africa has at best been pathetic, there have been exceptions. Cuba, a small, impoverished, land, is sending hundreds of well-trained doctors and medical caregivers into West Africa to try to halt the spread of the disease, an act that should shame much of the world, while one small NGO, Doctors Without Borders, has taken heroic risks to stem the pandemic. The Website Truthdig has made that group its Truthdigger of the Week and it couldnt be more deserving, but really it should be the planets Earther of the Month or something like that. It deserves every kind of support from the rest of us. Tom Both the local and global population’s first defenses against those horrifying scenarios are the groups and individuals risking their lives to contain the scourge. According to the World Health Organization, leading the effort is the categorically heroic Doctors Without Borders (known under its original French name as Medecins Sans Frontieres). The humanitarian organization has five treatment centers spread across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, with an international staff of 210 working with the assistance of 1,650 locals. The group has exceeded its medical function as well, creating detailed maps of the impacted areas that are being used by other responding organizations, including the Red Cross. The group showed up at the start of the epidemic and has pushed governments and agencies around the world to respond. Its tone has not always been reserved or polite. Nor would one expect it to be. In addition to the thousands of West Africans killed, at least 16 of the organization’s members have been infected with the disease, nine of whom have died from it. At a U.N. briefing Sept. 2, Doctors Without Borders President Joanne Liu criticized the nonresponse from member countries and the organization as a whole, which declared the outbreak a threat to international peace and security only on Sept. 18. “Six months into the worst Ebola epidemic in history, the world is losing the battle to contain it, Liu said. In West Africa, cases and deaths continue to surge. Riots are breaking out. Isolation centers are overwhelmed. Health workers on the front lines are becoming infected and are dying in shocking numbers. Others have fled in fear, leaving people without care for even the most common illnesses. Entire health systems have crumbled. Ebola treatment centers are reduced to places where people go to die alone, where little more than palliative care is offered. It is impossible to keep up with the sheer number of infected people pouring into facilities. In Sierra Leone, infectious bodies are rotting in the streets.” truthdig/report/item/truthdiggers_of_the_week_frontline_ebola_responders_20141018
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 12:30:01 +0000