The world’s perilous Ebola complacency
Arab News · Tom Achoki, Nebiyu Dereje, Jean Kaseya ·
The world’s perilous Ebola complacency
A catastrophic threat is exploding in the heart of Africa. Congo is currently battling the deadliest, fastest-moving Ebola outbreak in its history. In mid-May, the World Health Organization and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention declared a public health emergency of international concern and continental security. As of Oct. 27, there had been 10,193 cases and 4,960 deaths.
Yet amid rising geopolitical factionalism, the international response remains inadequate. The rest of the world is treating this ticking biological time bomb as a distant, localized problem, despite the risk of a catastrophic global health failure with massive socioeconomic consequences.
This political malaise is all the more alarming given the biological features of the current outbreak. Unlike past epidemics driven by the well-known Zaire ebolavirus strain, this one is caused by the rarer Bundibugyo virus, for which there are no fully licensed vaccines or proven antiviral treatments. Owing to the severity of the outbreak, health agencies have rushed to deploy a mix of cross-strain vaccines and rapid clinical testing. In most cases, responders are left with nothing but the most basic tools of containment, contact tracing and isolation.
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