The World Health Organization (WHO)
has now declared the killer Ebola epidemic ravaging parts of West Africa an
international health emergency and appealed for global aid to help the
afflicted countries. This comes after the epidemic continued to spread,
affecting more countries, the latest being Nigeria, and humanitarian agencies
responding to it admitted that they were over-stretched and there were few resources
to respond to the disaster. The latest reported cases
bring the total number up to 1,711 across the four countries, with 932
deaths-the worst Ebola outbreak in history.
One outstanding face of the efforts
to save lives in this has been the profound Western response to it, as though
it were the hardest hit. Just to mention, the US CDC has sent its 60 best
scientists to West Africa, the World Bank has pledged USDs. 150 Million, and
the British Parliament spared time to debate the crisis. With her better
science and technology, the west has always been there to bring us up in our
lowest moments of need.
Urbanization, travel and the personal connections that come with
economic development and weaker and/or unadhered-to policies appear to have
helped the virus spread. At the same time, a more formidable health-care
infrastructure that could go a long way to stopping Ebola before it reaches
outbreak status has not kept pace, and in some countries were just too weak.
More health workers have been in demand, and in some cases, the few available
have been demotivated to serve their people. Right through the disaster,
Nigerian doctors have been on strike over poor pay and Liberian nurses have
been on strike over lack of basic protection while handling the Ebola patients;
cultural beliefs related to hygiene and sanitation habits have exposed weaker
health education systems and admissions of failure by West African governments
have confirmed our fears of vulnerability in times of disaster.
The African Union has ubiquitously
remained silent and disinterested in mobilizing African resources to complement
the efforts by others. This is the time for the Africa Union to develop a
response plan unique to the African factors contributing to the spread of the
disease. It would be better if even indigenous organizations were largely
involved in using the USDs. 60 Million contributed by the African Development
Bank (AfDB) towards containing the scourge.
It has also pointed to our weak disaster
response plans. This Ebola has caught everyone by surprise because most Ebola outbreaks
occur in Central Africa, where it originated. A 2012
World Risk Report notes that 13 out of the 15 most vulnerable countries
globally are African, solely because of their low coping and adaptive ability
in the event of disasters. Though early warning systems in the continent are
lacking and need improvement, there is also a need to fill the void between the
dissemination of this information and the ability to act on it. Only 25 African
countries have established national policies and strategies for risk reduction
and worse, only 13 have set aside funds from their national budget towards this
cause.
These said, Africa MUST learn and
(collectively) document quick lessons from this, so that the next epidemic
disaster (God forbid) does not happen on our land again. One most important
one: let us invest in more and diverse health human resources, effectively
train and properly motivate them better for stronger disease control and
emergency surveillance and response systems.
The Writer is a Kenyan Public Health
Expert on Community Mobilization based in South Sudan (chrispory.juma@gmail.com)
