Ebola Virus Disease Epidemic Summary

We live in a country where all children go to school to gain an education and 25% of them will go onto receive some type of college degree. Compare this to low-income countries, in which children are 16 times as likely to die prior to their fifth birthday (Nickitas, Middaugh & Aries, 2016). Beyond the lens of our smartphones, Facebook friends and Nike sneakers is a world full of desperate people wishing to have enough food to eat for today. Many parts of the world lack sanitation, safe housing, sparse medical care and no medication. The global health issue are everyone’s problems not only for the sake of altruism but, with the increase in global travel for routine business and pleasure, dangerous pathogen are no longer confine by boarders. The Ebola outbreak four years ago, proved the necessity of a global solution to global health issues. The collaborative practice of several world health agencies and economically developed countries along with the use of volunteers, statistical updates, the latest literature and practices kept this outbreak mostly contained to its region of origin and the death toll to approximately 11,000 people (mainly in West Africa) (WHO,

This Ebola outbreak taught us many factors of public health that we simply ignore daily, like washing hands. These viruses are easily transmitted from person to person, through their blood or body-fluids. Therefore it is very important to research about our public health around us, for everyone’s health and future. The Ebola outbreak showed how the world is very ignorant of their public health. It is better for them to know all of these tragedies and educate themselve to prevent from any other outbreaks that will take place in the future. The plan to release more information and persuade to adjust West African culture will definitely make public healthier, view the world differently, and our future generations will learn the importance of learning

The world faced a stark reality at the turn of the century. Amidst unprecedented new wealth and powerful new technologies, millions were still getting sick and dying from diseases and life expectancies were actually falling. Therefore, in September 2000, 189 country representatives adopted the Millennium Development Goals to focus on time limited commitments to reduce poverty and promote human development in order to reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDs, malaria and other disease by 2015.(WHO, 2008). The challenge for meeting this deadline of goals was perceived as emergent and had a powerful effect for transforming the long-standing problem of global public health. It was perceived that globalization was putting the social cohesiveness of many countries under stress and that the health systems as key constituents of our contemporary societies were clearly not performing as well as they could and should.

The Fundamental Problem with our Response to Bioterrorism is not Inadequate Legal Authority. It is that Health Departments do not have Adequate Political and Economic Support.

Involvement with organisations that are ideologically underpinned by capitalism, such as that of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), should be approached by the global south with caution. As Tido von Schoen Angerer, Executive Director of the Access Campaign at Médecins Sans Frontières, explains, “[These organisations] wants the private sector to do more on global health… As these institutions are clearly also trying to influence policymaking, there are huge conflicts of interests”.

In conclusion, it is no surprise that the Doctors Without Borders organization is one of the world’s leading relief organizations for devastated and needy people. Started in France in 1971, it has grown to an international entity that reaches all corners of the earth. It is the ability of this organization to work simultaneously at the international, intermediate, and local levels, as a result of globalization, uneven geographies and neoliberalism that make MSF such an effective disaster relief aid. Famine, epidemics, malnutrition, death and the other numerous problems around the world can be tackled on multiple levels and dealt with by organizations like Doctors Without Borders, because of globalization and the integration of the various scales

One major health issue is the presence malaria in developing countries which affects half the world’s population in the poorest parts of the world. It is estimated that more than 3,000 children die from malaria every day. The UN, with the help of World Health Organization, launched the Rock Back Malaria Initiative in 1998, which is movement to improve the lives in those places and prevent the disease overall. A foundation Nothing but Nets was created by the UN to raise money and awareness for the cause. Sponsorships from big associations like the Major League Soccer, and the National Basketball Association and Junior Chamber International helped raise $35 million dollars and helped distribute to over 25 countries in Africa (Preventing Malaria Deaths). Yet international relations can also help countries understand diseases in their own country. I conducted an interview with Saba Danwala, an international health analyst at the US Department of Health and Human Services, who deals with working with developing countries analyzing the affections of infectious disease. She mentions that “International relations has a greater part to play [in a world with so much information] I see this for countries wanting to improve their health systems, for instance. The diplomats who speak to the higher powers in these countries can sway a president, for

the Ebola outbreak could have been contained, but due to a political transition in the Democratic Republic of Congo, that was explained by the “interruption of international cooperation, inadequate disease surveillance and reporting, and a breakdown of the general health care infrastructure, due in part to a lack of motivation among poorly paid health

The Ebola virus made Sierra Leone one of it’s biggest victims as it spread across West Africa. It is no doubt due to the Ebola epidemic that Sierra Leone’s demographic pressure remained fragile according to the index. According to the World Health Organization, Sierra Leone acted according to protocol, yet outbreak was eminent. It is here where the deficiency in public services correlating with the demographic pressures in Sierra Leone becomes most evident. The quality healthcare in Sierra Leone might have improved but it is still in need. Although control was implemented eventually, lives were still taken due to the severe shortage of public services and the lack of quality health care in Sierra Leone. Infection spread to nearly 23,000 in West Africa since the outbreak in March 2014. A handle has been taken on the epidemic, mostly contributed to the slight improvement in Sierra Leone recently as well as foreign intervention- ironically enough from former colonizer Great Britain. Unfortunately, controversy has plagued Sierra Leone on behalf of Ebola outbreak efforts. Not only does the WHO claim that “today, Sierra Leone’s most urgent needs include opening up more Ebola care facilities- which means more trained staff to meet a severe shortage” but CNN reports that there has been a severe misappropriation of funds regarding Ebola aid. Although it may be appropriate to acclaim the audits of Sierra Leone for recognizing such misappropriation, one cannot neglect to understand that corruption and capacity failure in the structure of Sierra

The UN had a role that encompassed many areas; they helped with coordinating tasks, for example, logistics operations. Furthermore, the UN created the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response. The WHO made formal statement that declared the Ebola outbreak as an international concern and in turn caused an international response to the Ebola outbreak. The WHO also worked with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in order to create effective messages for the citizens of the affected countries, especially since most could not read. The NGO field workers were the first ones to come across Ebola

The UN defines complex emergencies (CE) as, “a major humanitarian crisis, of a multi-causal nature that requires a system-wide response.” I set out to determine if public-health interventions in complex emergency settings are useful; if so, how can they be efficaciously implemented. I hypothesize that a triad of multilateral military actors, international health institutions, and civilian humanitarian organizations− working as a closely coordinated coalition will optimize health outcomes. Via an aggregation of current peer reviewed articles, I have found the most vital, practical and effective modules for health interventions in CEs. These modules

The Ebola has a strong relevance to the securitisation theory as there were many laws and precautions introduce by governments globally in order to securitise and protect public health.

It has always been said that the things that are unlikely to happen does actually happen during an emergency or in a crisis situation. If one accept that it is by fate a crisis happens and do not have any precautionary measures, then the crisis management is doomed to fail. This holds true when dealing with humanitarian aids after a disaster,whether man-made or of natural cause. It is then of utmost importance that all the actors in the humanitarian community knows their roles and get their acts together harmoniously. Figure 1 shows the link between these different actors and how they work together (GHA Report, 2011). Who are then these actors within the humanitarian community?

At the advent of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, many experts asked why these nations were unable to identify and contain the spread of the disease early on and why was the international community slow to respond. It is my view that any developing country (especially fragile, post conflict states) would have struggled with an epidemic of this nature, not just Sierra Leone and Liberia. However, as many fragile states have under-developed health systems, the real questions are: “why are the health systems

The humanitarian intervention and international aid provided by Western forces to combat diseases such as ebola and AIDS reinforce already preconceived patriarchal notions of Africa as the afflicted continent. From the colonial era leading up to the present day, Africa has been constantly afflicted in one form or another by various types of lethal disease including but certainly not limited to ebola and AIDS. The epidemics caused by these diseases have often been considered to necessitate outside intervention namely by Western influences. Perceived as due to causes such as “lack of infrastructure, access to healthcare and education” (culanth.org, 2014), states such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea in the context of the ebola epidemic, and much of sub-Saharan Africa in the context of HIV/AIDS, have been inadequately equipped to successfully deal with the repercussions caused by these diseases. The aid and resources provided by large scale entities such as the World Health Organization (apps.who.int/ebola, 2015) and the Red Cross (redcross.org/ebolaoutbreak, 2015) somewhat mitigate the devastating impacts caused by these diseases through financial contributions (redcross.org/ebolaoutbreak, 2015). However, since they are largely driven by notions of guilt and self serving intentions, these contributions serve only to perpetuate the image of Africa as being in a constant state of ‘affliction’. Because the West views Africa on the whole as a continent that always requires