Undoubtedly, 2014 has been a year of tears in Africa. On 23 March 2014, Guinea reported that Ebola is back into the sight. Originally discovered in 1976 in two countries, Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo, this epidemic virus got its name from the Ebola River situated in Yambuku village in Congo. Since 1976 and until 2012, it is estimated that Ebola have claimed the lives of over 1590 people.
In Guinea, the early cases were reported from the forest region of the country. Afterwards cases were reported from Liberia and Sierra Leone. In 8 April 2014, Dr. Keiji Fukuda, WHO Assistant Director-General Health Security said that this outbreak is “one of the most challenging Ebola outbreaks that we have ever faced and right now we have documented cases, both in Guinea and in Liberia”. The recent Ebola situation report of the World Health Organization dated 4 February 2015 states that the cumulative deaths reached 8966.
While updating on their responsiveness, WHO articulated that two vaccines are in safety trials for use in Ebola affected countries, and that two antivirals and two blood products have been identified for clinical studies as therapies. However, innovative diagnostics for rapid, sensitive, safe, and simple testing for Ebola are urgently needed. Hereby, a partnership between WHO, the innovative diagnostics partnership FIND and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is working with a number of companies to develop the tests and review them in record time.
— UN Geneva (@UNGeneva) February 5, 2015
Understand their pain and act against the threat
You do not need to know people there to do something for them, although you need to respond. At this point, involving everyone is a necessity and social mobilization proved to be key in Ebola outbreak response. Plenty of events took place, in Africa and worldwide to raise awareness for Ebola and to raise funds too. These solidarity actions were not only dry lectures about the pain Ebola caused and orphans left behind, but further included music and arts festivals that brought people together to contribute to humanity. Fashion is there too; On January 28th, 2015 the Red Fashion Team announced that Naomi Champbell will open the London Fashion Week with a special “Fashion For Relief” show. On February 4th, Naomi Champbell tweeted that mentioning:
Trend and socio-economic impact
On 26 January 2015, MSF communicated that “a downward trend of new cases has been reported from Ebola management centers across Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone”. This is promising indeed, however, MSF cautions that a loss of vigilance now would jeopardize the progress made in stemming the epidemic. On the socio-economic impact, Ana Revenga, Senior Director of Poverty at the World Bank said that “side effects put the current and future prosperity of households at high risk” hinting that careful attention to those who are most vulnerable to both health and economic shocks should be paid. According to a World Bank publication, women are particularly vulnerable as the labor market stagnates, with 60 percent of those working at the start of the crisis no longer working and the farmers cite difficulty in organizing work teams given Ebola fears, reducing harvests.
— David Thomson (@DavidThomsonWV) January 29, 2015