Pictured above: the Ebola virus. Image courtesy of Flickr.
By Amelia Luo ’23
Global Editor & Photographer
Nine Ebola cases have been reported in Guinea, leading to the deaths of five people, as of Feb. 25, 2021. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization has confirmed its third case of Ebola as of Feb. 12. On Feb. 27, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a travel precaution to all individuals traveling from Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the U.S. Since this year’s outbreak took place in relatively remote areas, the risk of importing Ebola cases to the U.S. is extremely low, meaning this is just an extended precaution, according to CNN.
According to the WHO, the first Ebola case, or “the original community source,” is still unclear.
The Ebola virus is deadly, with an average mortality rate of 50 percent. The virus mainly spreads through people who are visibly sick by direct contact with bodily fluids or contaminated surfaces.
On Feb. 23, the WHO sent over 11,000 Ebola vaccines to Guinea. The WHO’s Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti claimed that a vaccination team has been set up in N’Zerekore, Guinea’s second largest city, and is prepared to vaccinate citizens. He also suggested that they would soon receive an additional 8,600 doses of vaccine from the U.S.
Reilly Dennedy ’23, an international relations major, commented on the inequality of vaccine distribution globally. “Generally, there is devastating inequality when it comes to global access to medicine. … The way that would have worked is that pharmaceutical companies would agree to join it and when they developed a new medication, it would become totally open source,” Dennedy said. “The company would get a royalty for [its] contribution, but making the information open source would mean decreased prices and increased medical advancements.”
For Dennedy, this case brought up a much larger issue. “The majority of information about medicine comes from state-funded labs, yet Big Pharma is allowed to use this open source information to create something that they are able to sell at inflated prices for their own profit — generally, the market price for medication is 100 times the cost of production,” Dennedy explained.
Guinea is equipped with an inefficient health care infrastructure, with most of its citizens’ deaths associated with “communicable, maternal, and neonatal diseases and nutritional disorders,” according to Quartz Africa. However, due to sufficient preparation this time, the response took place quickly after the first case in Guinea had been confirmed. Guinea began to vaccinate its citizens with a priority on high-risk communities. As of Feb. 25, 2021, around 225 people have been vaccinated for the Ebola virus in the country.
The U.N. Central Emergency Response Fund granted $15 million to Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Those funds would also be used to prepare for the potential spread of the Ebola virus in neighboring countries, setting up testing centers and preparing treatments.
According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, about 11,000 people were killed during the Ebola outbreak from 2014 to 2016. Regional Director of the IFRC for Africa Mohammed Mukhier told the IFRC Media, “We need a response that is faster than the virus itself. Unless the response is swift, the health, economic and social impacts are likely to be immense for millions of people in a country with a relatively weak health system, and where more than half of the population lives below the poverty line.”
Learning from their past experiences, the IFRC called for the first wave of responses: The government and more than 700 trained Red Cross volunteers were activated to advise preventive measures and report signs of the disease to authorities.
Yuxi Zhu ’22, a biology major, commented on the link between COVID-19 and Ebola outbreaks. “Interestingly, the world is giving more attention to prevent the spread of deadly diseases at an early stage after the outbreak of COVID-19 was out of control,” Zhu said. “We learned from the past year of suffering and inconveniences that the world is highly connected. At the time of emergency, we need to put down the nationalist view and act responsibly as global citizens. For countries, that means to level the ground of inequality and give aid to the vaccination process.”