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DRC Ebola Outbreak 2019 Blog 3 Humans Caught Between Two Wars
3. Humans Caught Between Two Wars
Contrary to the portrayal by some news articles and media outlets, most of the people living in the northeastern DRC provinces and surrounding nations want stability, not mass migrations driven by hunger, violence or Ebola outbreaks. Just like any community, these migrants and local populations include merchants, farmers, tradesmen, bankers, students, professors and mothers with children. These people would prefer to settle down, trade, enjoy life and raise their families.
Caught between the war against Ebola virus and the war of militias for regional control, their circumstances demand adaption to the immediate realities. Some people live in areas too infested with violence to seek medical attention for Ebola symptoms. To shoulder responsibility and assist the WHO and coalition efforts, the coalition and North Kivu and Ituri province colleagues trained 3,000 volunteers within the first 3 months of 2019. As training continues community organizations and their leadership are involved in assisting the WHO and its international partners’ work. Yet, some individuals and groups commit violence against local populations and the WHO partnership. Containing EID outbreaks is not only important for those people who live far from an outbreak, but it is crucial to a community’s efforts to remain viable and save its people (20-23).
Over the past 12 months, the northeastern DRC outbreak continued to grow, infecting over 2,000 people and requiring that over 100,000 people receive the Ebola virus vaccine. During this time, the Ebola virus outbreak was never completely under the control of the international coalition. Unraveling some scientific and social reasons behind the difficulty of controlling this Ebola outbreak is a goal of this essay (23). The essay as a case study is divided into medical and political issues of this outbreak which will highlight some of our strengths and weaknesses in combating epidemics.
Copyright © 2019 Na’eem A. Abdullah All Rights Reserved
Morning fog on the African river Sangha. Congo. Sergey Uryadnikov Photographer/ Shutterstock Photos.
Many emerging infectious diseases originate in tropical ecosystems. See About Page - Sangha River.
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