The plight of Africa hounded by this strain for which a vaccine could be at least seven months away and for which no specific treatment has been formulated yet can well be imagined
The health scare caused by the Ebola virus of the rare Bundibugyo strain that is striking people in a few African countries after breaking out in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has reached India too. The very fear of the spread of the virus saw the government cancel two summits — the India Africa summit and the Big Cats summit — that were to take place in New Delhi in May-June.
The plight of Africa hounded by this strain for which a vaccine could be at least seven months away and for which no specific treatment has been formulated yet can well be imagined. One hundred deaths have occurred so far and there are over 600 suspected cases only from the DRC outbreak. The infection, which generally spreads through personal contact, is already reaching neighbouring countries like Uganda. Nations on other continents, including India, are putting in safeguards like airport surveillance for people travelling out of the Ebola zone.
“Blame it on the USA” might seem the flavour of the moment when it comes to quite a few crises around the world. It does, however, appear that the US is also to blame for this Ebola outbreak since it has cut back substantially on aid to Africa where disease surveillance systems are being weakened by funding cuts, especially in the DRC, where health workers have been laid off as Mr Trump’s USA cut off support for global aid programmes.
Haunting memories of the Covid pandemic are being replayed as the world fights a few viruses like the Hantavirus that struck a cruise ship in European waters even as Covid cases are said to be rising in Singapore and the island nation is scrambling to find out if the strain is more infectious. Logically, after the Covid experience, the world should have been better prepared for handling the outbreak of infectious diseases. It is not so considering how the first DRC case of April 20 was officially declared only on May 15.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, blames late detection on the outbreak province being an interior rural area of DRC which is also a war-torn country. What the Covid pandemic taught us was how rapidly diseases caused by viruses can spread across a connected world. Maybe, the US and other prosperous nations will learn at least not to crimp on aid for health care and disease prevention.
