An
epidemic aided by poverty
Rebekah Ward and Dora Curry look at the deadly
outbreak of Ebola sweeping through West Africa--and how poverty and racism are
enabling the spread of the disease.
August 20, 2014
AS THE
deadly disease Ebola spreads throughout West Africa, some in the U.S. have been
engaging in fear-mongering and racism. Others
are seeing this deadly outbreak as a golden chance to profit off
desperation. But what's causing the high death toll is the intersection of Ebola and poverty.
A
hemorrhagic fever with symptoms that include headache, vomiting and diarrhea,
as well as the signature symptoms of internal and external bleeding, Ebola is caused by a virus that is spread through contact
with fluids like saliva, urine, blood and semen. There are no
known cases of airborne transmission, unlike other deadly diseases like
influenza. Because of this, Ebola is actually relatively
hard to transmit from human to human, and is less contagious
than measles, whooping cough or polio.
According
to the scare merchants at Fox News, however, "The deadly
Ebola outbreak in West Africa poses a threat to America."
Other choice headlines include, "Here are the 35 countries one flight away
from Ebola-affected countries," and "Ebola outbreak: Deadly foreign
diseases are 'potential major threat.'"
The
Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization, however, both
agree that there is almost no chance that an outbreak could
occur in the U.S., or in any nation with sufficient medical
infrastructure. In fact, in previous outbreaks, infected individuals have
returned to their home countries, with no further transmission there.
Two
American missionaries were flown back to the U.S. after contracting Ebola
during this most recent outbreak. There was very little alarmism about these
two Ebola-infected people on U.S. soil. However, some right-wingers are urging
the U.S. to close all flights to and from West Africa to prevent the spread of
Ebola.
This
double standard reflects another component of this outbreak: racism. The
renowned public health expert Donald Trump tweeted, "The bigger problem
with Ebola is all of the people coming into the U.S. from West Africa who may
be infected with the disease. STOP FLIGHTS!" Meanwhile, the right-wing
Breitbart.com reminded readers that 80,000 Nigerians travel to the U.S. every
year in an article entitled, "Air travel
from Nigeria most likely path for Ebola to reach U.S." [1]
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THERE ARE
several theories about the natural host for Ebola, but the most widely accepted
one is that the virus lives in fruit bats. In
this scenario, an infected fruit bat would come in contact with a person
(possible through another animal) and introduce the disease into a human
population.
But the
primary mechanism through which humans become infected is contact with other
humans--the vast majority of humans infected acquire Ebola from contact with
the bodily fluids of other infected humans. Furthermore, doctors believe
that humans can only transmit the disease after they begin to show symptoms.
Media
hysteria claiming people in the U.S. (or any other nation with similar
infrastructure) are at risk from Ebola is simply that--hysteria.
And while
some elements the Ebola virus' natural host and life cycle remain unclear, the
media obsession with the possibility of that constant consumption of bush meat
or various cultural practices in caring for the dead plays a role--among the
many racist assertions in the U.S. media--is a distortion of the facts fueled
by racism and the desire to profit from spiking readership and viewership.
The current Ebola outbreak
in West Africa is the most deadly in history. Over 2,000 cases and 1,000 deaths have been associated with it.
Declan Butler, senior reporter for the prestigious scientific journal Nature,
puts this outbreak in context by saying, "Since Ebola first appeared
in 1976, only 19 outbreaks have had more than 10 victims...Only
seven other of the few dozen past outbreaks have involved more than 100
cases."
So what
has made this outbreak different? Ebola has usually been contained
in remote villages, far from cities. This outbreak has spread to
the sprawling urban centers in several West African countries.
The
combination of urban overcrowding and completely inadequate health facilities
in such urban centers creates a perfect breeding ground for this and many other
illnesses. Monrovia, Liberia (population 1.5 million),
Freetown, Sierra Leone (1.2 million) and Conkary, Guinea (1.7 million) have all
reported growing numbers of cases.
According
to Bessman Toe, head of the Montserrado County slum-dweller association in
Monrovia, in some areas, up to 70,000 residents have access to only four public
toilets connected to a sewage system. The UN estimates that 42 percent of the
population of Monrovia are "squatters," thus living in makeshift
shacks tightly crowded together. In the Kroo Bay neighborhood of Freetown, rent
is prohibitively high for the structures on dry land, so many are constructing
shelters on the floating garbage over the ocean.
In Guinea, there are 0.1
doctors per 1,000 people. That number is 0.022 for Sierra Leone and 0.014 for
Liberia. Basic health protections,
like disposable gloves, are simply not available for those few doctors
practicing in these countries. And while many doctors have been sickened in
this outbreak due to these conditions, their numbers overestimate the size of
the health care staff which is trying to stem the tide of the infection. Ebola may be a deadly disease, but it is clearly not the
root cause of these deaths.
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RACISM AND economic
disparities can also seen in discussions about Ebola treatment and vaccines. The treatment known as zMapp has allowed
for near-recovery in the patients who have received it in the U.S. But even following a formal request from the Nigerian
government, the U.S. refused to supply the serum on August 7. The
Obama administration cited concerns about the experimental nature of the drug.
The next
day, it agreed to supply Liberia with doses for two doctors. Either the drug
became less experimental overnight, or the sheer hypocrisy of the statement was
too much to bear.
It is absolutely true that
the zMapp serum is experimental. This
therapy is produced in plants and is made of proteins called antibodies that
bind the Ebola virus in the blood, keeping it from damaging the body. Prior to
its use on the Americans, it had only been tested in monkeys. It is also true that a Spanish priest was administered
the serum after returning to Spain, and the treatment did not save him.
However,
the limited monkey studies that have been done indicated that the serum must be administered within 48 hours of
infection to have full efficacy--and in the case of the
Americans, that happened.
Two doses
of the experimental treatment were secretly flown to Africa and administered to
the Americans prior to their flight back to the U.S. This brings us to the
central hypocrisy: Drugs are only "too
experimental" for Africa if they are scarce. Already, zMapp
developers say, "The available supply of ZMapp has been exhausted. We have
complied with every request for ZMapp that had the necessary legal/regulatory
authorization."
After the
recent UN and World Health Organization approval of experimental treatments for
Ebola, these countries have also been flooded with other new
"treatments" for the disease.
One of the most high
profile is Nano Silver. Although silver particles
do have some anti-microbial properties and have been shown to bind some
viruses, this treatment has never been tested in live animals, much less
humans. These small silver particles, if ingested, would likely pass out of the
patient without ever encountering the Ebola virus. If the treatment is
injected, the side effects could be more fatal in the long term than the
disease.
The
Nigerian Health Minister confirmed that the country was to receive a large
shipment of Nano Silver to combat Ebola. The manufacturer of this treatment
also offers online sales of ear candles, hemp oil, chocolate and "mental
clarity packs." Again, we see the pattern of African lives as disposable
in the eyes of those seeking profit for their drugs.
People
are not dying of Ebola because of "exotic cultural practices." Nor is
Ebola impossible to treat and inevitably spread throughout a population.
While its symptoms are
sensational and more fatal than some other diseases, the rapid, widespread
nature of this Ebola outbreak can be tied directly to systemic inequality. The natural features of this disease (unclear and infrequent
transmission into human populations, difficult to transmit when even basic
infection prevention practices are in place) actually make it very unlikely to
spread. It is the very unnatural features of overcrowded, under-resourced poor
urban centers that allow the Ebola virus to thrive.
Poverty and racism are the
most deadly aspects of this disease. Until we
live in a world with access to healthy living conditions and quality health
care for all, we will continue to see contagious unnatural disasters.
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Published by the International Socialist Organization.
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Material on this Web site is licensed by SocialistWorker.org, under a Creative Commons (by-nc-nd 3.0) [2] license, except for articles that are republished with permission. Readers are welcome to share and use material belonging to this site for non-commercial purposes, as long as they are attributed to the author and SocialistWorker.org.