(CNN) -- The
Ebola epidemic now raging across three countries in West Africa is three-fold larger than any other outbreak ever recorded for this terrible disease; the only one to have occurred in urban areas and to cross national borders; and officially
urgent and serious. At least
1,090 people have contracted the awful disease this year, though the epidemic's true scope is unknown because of widespread opposition to health authorities in afflicted Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
This week, 39-year-old physician Sheik Umar Khan -- labeled the country's hero for his brave leadership of the epidemic fight -- was
hospitalized with Ebola, adding yet another public fear: that even the doctors cannot escape the disease.
But as terrifying as Ebola is, the virus has been controlled in the past, and can be again. The current crisis, which threatens an 11-nation region of Africa that includes the continent's giant, Nigeria, is not a biological or medical one so much as it is political. The three nations in Ebola's thrall need technical support from outsiders but will not succeed in stopping the virus until each nation's leaders embrace effective governance.
As was the case in Kikwit, Zaire, in 1995 -- an Ebola outbreak I personally was in as a journalist -- there is no vaccine or cure for the disease. The key to stopping its spread is rapid identification of the sick; removal of the ailing and deceased from their homes; and quarantine and high hygiene measures to prevent transmission of the virus to family members and health care workers.
In the absence of such measures, Ebola will kill upwards of 70% of those it infects, as the virus punches holes in veins, causing massive internal hemorrhaging and bleeding from the eyes, ears, mouth and all other orifices.
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are among the poorest, least governed states in the world. About half of the nations' adults are illiterate. The 11.75 million people of Guinea have a per capita annual income of
merely $527, and their combined male/female life expectancy is
58 years. In 2011, the government of President Alpha Conde spent
$7 on average per capita on health.
Life is no better for the 4.2 million people living in
neighboring Liberia, where per capita income is $454, life expectancy is 62 years and the government of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf spends $18 per capita on health.
In Sierra Leone, the 6 million residents have a per capita income of $809 per year, life expectancy is merely 46 years, and the government of the President, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma, spent $13 per capita last year on health.
Since Ebola first broke out in March in Guinea, fear has gripped the region, coupled with suspicion and wild rumors. Some
have proclaimed the epidemic "divine retribution" for past sins. In April, Guinean health officials
failed to quarantine an Ebola patient who reportedly spread the virus from a remote area to the capital -- a lapse that undermined government credibility.
In April, a mob claiming that foreigners were spreading diseases
attacked a Doctors Without Borders clinic in rural Guinea and forced the Nobel Peace Prize-winning group to abandon its mission. The charity returned only after it had negotiated its safety with local religious leaders. In the capital city of Conakry, families have been
hiding their ailing relatives.
Even the local
Red Cross was forced to abandon a part of the country after men brandishing knives surrounded them. And in one district, police
fired tear gas at a mob that was trying to raid the morgue in order to give their loved ones proper burials, despite the risk of contagion.
As the epidemic spread to Sierra Leone in May,
brought in by a traditional healer who tended to ailing Guineans and then returned home, similar problems surfaced. Family members
defied a local quarantine, thereby spreading infection. By the end of May, authorities were
losing track of Ebola sufferers amid widespread
fleeing from health facilities; the toll of missing patients approached 60 by June.
Some local leaders spread rumors that
"the white people" were
conducting experiments
Originally Posted by Acala
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