African corruption gave us ebola !
crystallad
Posts: 3,744 Forum Member
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The world has piled billions and billions in to Africa and we all knew it wasn't getting to the people it was intended for! Poverty is horrific compared to the money received so are we surprised there is famine and disease? I blame developed governments for letting this happen and hope we learn a lesson should Africa survive ebola!
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Lack of resources on the ground, bearing in mind even with the protective gear you can still pick it up.. not to mention taxi drivers ferrying infected patients around
More research needs to be done into the source and causes of infection... they can't simply say "oh its because of exotic meat consumption" i.e. monkey meats and expect people to accept that... many cultures have done that sort of thing for 100's if not 1000's of years, we (people generally) would not be here today and the disease would had been identified long before
As far as we go in the west, screening is nice but lets not be naive enough to believe enough is being done about it... its not scaremongering its simply taking a realistic pov
Hysteria was also a common response to AIDS the early days.
In the early days no one knew exactly how AIDS was contracted. Health agencies seem to have a clear idea how Ebola is passed from person to person.
Leaving aside the bit about researchers just jumped on 'exotic meat consumption' rather than research the problem (that's just not how research works), the above comment completely misses the points that:
1 diseases and viruses evolve - rapidly
2 most societies are far more mobile than they were even 50 years ago. If Ebola existed in the early part of the last century, it would most likely have flared in one remote locality and burned itself out, then repeated the cycle elsewhere although probably close by. Even if it did break out into a less rural area, the lack of widespread and international travel would have contained it.
3 medical treatment is also completely different. Again, 100 years ago there would have been little or no treatment other than on-site, leaving a localised major infection that burned itself out through lack of carriers. Nowadays the victims get whisked off to hospital elsewhere and have considerable contact with an external environment.
Historical pandemics have in fact been few, and are always linked to travel patterns (the post-WW1 influenza pandemic was significantly a result of mass population movements post-war).
In the early days of ebola no one had a clue as to why people were dying, what was the cause and what is the cure. It seems to have come from nowhere but must have been taking its toll long before the world got involved. No one would have been keeping records of people in remote villages dying in large number.
A clear idea? I don't think so - all they know is that it is is passed on despite despite the best efforts to protect against that. There will now be a long period of confusion misunderstanding arguing and hysteria just like with AIDS.
think how over populated places would be if there was no disease to keep numbers in check
if you get ill and die , so be it , but like bird flu and every other BS disease that is gonna wipe us all out, it will pass ,and we will die more from common flu
It was spread by millions of servicemen and servicewomen going home from one continent to another.
Or obesity related conditions.
Not just African corruption but also Western corruption to a certain extent. While Africa is kept poor its allows easy and cheap access to their natural resources .
Instead of giving billions in aid since the 1960's to corrupt politicians we should have given the money directly to NGO's . Under a UN mandate the NGO's should have run these countries health and education systems free from interference from vested corrupt governments/politicians. After the first generation has had the benefit of modern health and education the NGO's could then have passed health and education back to this generation . I'm pretty sure Africa would be in a better place today .
Would you suggest that Pharmaceutical companies should invest hundreds of millions on drugs that will only cure / help a few thousand ?
It seems that that hysteria may have saved countless lives . Condom use in the 80's shot up which saved countless lives in the West .