I know that’s a provocative title. But nothing justifies it quite like the true story about the origins of Ebola.
It just so happens that National Geographic is dramatizing that story in a TV series called the The Hot Zone. It premieres tonight.
That said,
With the Democratic Republic of Congo facing its deadliest Ebola outbreak ever, the World Health Organization is warning the disease could spread to other African countries.
Making matters worse, the DRC’s quarter-century-old civil war is disrupting efforts to treat and contain Ebola. Violence and mistrust hamper efforts, as treatment centers are often attacked by militia groups, and people are either too scared or too suspicious to seek medical assistance here.
(CBS, May 24, 2019)
Sadly, we’ve seen this tragedy play out time and time again. According to the World Health Organization, this outbreak has already had nearly 1,800 confirmed cases with over 1,200 deaths.
Meanwhile, as it is with almost everything that plagues Africa, tribal warfare is exacerbating this tragedy too.
Health officials have warned that the second-deadliest outbreak of Ebola may spiral out of control unless attacks by armed groups on medical facilities and workers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) stop.
(Aljazeera, May 22, 2019)
I have decried this feature of far too many African tragedies in commentaries like “Rape as a Weapon of War in DR Congo,” October 18, 2010, “‘Another African Famine?! Nobody Cares!’ Then Call Me Nobody,” May 2, 2014, and “Africans Selling Africans as Slaves – Again,” December 18, 2017. With respect to attacks on aid workers, the second of these includes this:
No doubt the prevalence of drought-borne famine gives the impression that Africa is fated to Mother Nature’s neglect … or wrath. But the disillusioning truth is that the administrative incompetence and nefarious devices of African men are far more responsible for chronic starvation on that Dark Continent. It’s bad enough that these genocidal maniacs couldn’t care less about causing starvation, but they have shown no compunction about impeding, or even killing, foreign-aid workers trying to deliver relief.
Nonetheless, instead of venting despairing indignation anew, I shall suffice to reprise “Ebola Redux,” May 18, 2018:
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What is it about the continent of Africa that it suffers the worst not only of man’s inhumanity to man, but also of Mother Nature’s wrath?
After all, no continent has been more beset by genocidal wars and political corruption on the one hand, and by drought and disease on the other. This led me to coin the alliterative lament (in one of my first commentaries on March 7, 2005) that Africa too often features among the continents of the world as a dark, destitute, diseased, desperate, disenfranchised, dishonest, disorganized, disassociated, dangerous and, ultimately, dysfunctional mess.
Alas, this latest outbreak of Ebola only affirms the Dark Continent’s dubious distinction in these respects.
(“Ebola,” The iPINIONS Journal, October 9, 2014)
That outbreak in 2014 killed nearly 12,000. But thank God a white American (a missionary) got infected early on. Because that made combating this virus an international cause celebre, which compelled the American government to dispatch all kinds of human, medical, and military resources to the Ebola front in West Africa.
The decision to involve the military in providing equipment and other assistance for international health workers in Africa comes after mounting calls from some unlikely groups — most prominently the international medical organization Doctors Without Borders — demonstrating to the White House the urgency of the issue.
(The Washington Post, September 7, 2014)
There’s no denying that, without those resources, the number killed would easily have doubled or tripled.
Unfortunately, here we go again.
Congo has confirmed a case of Ebola in Mbandaka, a city of 1.2 million, marking the first urban case in the latest outbreak, which is now the most serious since the epidemic that raged across West Africa between 2014 and 2016.
Ebola is much harder to contain in urban areas, so this development compounds the risk of contagion. The World Health Organization’s lead response official called the new confirmed case a game changer.
(The Washington Post, May 17, 2018)
The only question now is how many Africans will die before a white American (or any white Westerner) gets infected. Because I fear it will take another case like that for the US and other Western governments to dispatch similar resources to help Congo contain this contagion.
According to the WHO, this outbreak has killed 23 … and counting.
That said, I would be remiss not to bemoan the continental shame inherent in Africans still needing outsiders to solve African problems. After all, they are now nearly 60 years removed from the days of colonialism.
Yet every year since, for one reason or another, some African country has presented itself on the world stage as still ‘the white man’s burden.’ Never mind that this proverbial white man is looking more Asian every year.
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Those same unlikely groups are sounding alarms and calling for help – again. And the same question obtains: How many Africans will (or have to) die before a white American (or any white Westerner) gets infected? Because, as always, only then will America lead Western efforts to fight and contain this latest outbreak.
Except that America is busy fighting a virus on the home front. And the hysteria surrounding it is such that the news media seem hard-pressed to even report on Ebola over in Africa.
The United States recorded 60 new measles cases last week, taking confirmed cases for the year to 940, the worst outbreak since 1994 and since measles was declared eliminated in 2000, federal health officials said on Monday. …
Public health officials have blamed the measles resurgence on the spread of misinformation about vaccines [think anti-vaxxers], as a vocal fringe of parents oppose vaccines, believing, contrary to scientific studies, that ingredients in them can cause autism.
(Reuters, May 27, 2019)
Related commentaries:
rape in DR Congo…
famine…
Africans selling Africans…
DR Congo heart of darkness…
Rwandan-style violence in DR Congo…
Ebola redux…
Ebola…
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