The outbreak of Ebola in West Africa has consumed global health news this fall. As of October 19th, there were 9,935 cases and 4,877 deaths, with widespread transmission in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Travel-associated and localized transmissions have occurred in Nigeria, Spain, Senegal and the United States.
With the spread of Ebola in West Africa – and the heartbreaking stories of lives lost to the virus – its arrival in the U.S. has been the topic of much news coverage. It is important for all people to be aware of the disease, to discuss the facts about and realize the toll it is taking in West Africa, but as New York Times columnist and humanitarian Nicholas Kristof wrote in his column last week:
…The truth is that Ebola is both less serious and far more serious than we think.
It’s less serious here because, in the end, the United States and other countries with advanced health systems can suppress Ebola outbreaks. Granted, the Dallas hospital bungled its response. Still, if Nigeria and Senegal can manage Ebola successfully, so can the United States. We won’t have an epidemic here.
Yet Ebola is more serious because there is a significant risk that it will become endemic in West Africa and spin off to other countries in the region or to India, Bangladesh or China…
The greatest contributing factors to the outbreak of the disease are the strained health systems of West Africa – particularly, the limited number of health workers. As a Reuters article highlighted, Liberia had only around 50 trained doctors for the country’s 4 million people before the outbreak of Ebola struck. According to the latest figures from the World Health Organization, across the region, 382 healthcare workers have caught Ebola. Of these, 216 have died, with Liberia and Sierra Leone hit particularly hard.
To address this crisis, and to prevent future outbreaks, we must devote time and resources to building health systems – and empowering health workers within those systems. With more staff and better training, health systems can stop outbreaks from reaching the heights we are currently seeing in West Africa. That is why HVO is committed to teaching, training and professional development opportunities for health workers in resource-scarce countries – and we applaud all working to empower local health systems to address the current crisis.
Thank you to the health workers and NGOs working under difficult and dangerous conditions to bring this outbreak to a close; for resources on the current crisis, please visit the CDC: Ebola Virus webpage and The Lancet: Ebola Resource Center.