The current outbreak of Ebola in West Africa is the worst in history.
The CDC has estimated that up to 1.4 million people in Sierra Leone and Liberia could end
up with Ebola, unless efforts to contain the disease are dramatically increased.
So, what’s currently being done about the epidemic in West Africa and is it going to
be enough?
Well, we’re doing a lot - but possibly not enough.
Containing Ebola is a matter of building up resources and disseminating information; two
things that West Africa is currently struggling with.
But things are starting to move in the right direction.
The US has committed an estimated 3,000 troops to the area, including members of The Army
Corps of Engineers, to help coordinate the relief effort.
It’s also reported that they’ll be constructing 17 Ebola treatment centers in Liberia with
room for about 1,700 beds.
They intend to train up to 500 health workers a week to staff those facilities and others
in West Africa.
They’re also going to increase the number of health workers sent from the CDC, and to
that end, they’re currently looking for volunteers.
So if you’re a health worker and you’re interested in join the relief effort, here’s
where you can apply.
In addition to all of that, the US is providing protection kits immediately targeting 400,000
of the most vulnerable households in Liberia, and they are sending tens of thousands of
Ebola testing kits.
According to the White House press secretary, the US has already spent $100 million dollars
on the relief effort, which is a large amount - but still nowhere near the 1 billion dollars
that the UN thinks is necessary to fully contain the disease.
Fortunately, the US isn’t the only game in town and resources are starting to pour
in from other places, but they still aren’t close to where they need to be just yet.
There are also strong efforts in place to inform the West African public about the dangers
of Ebola and the best ways to protect against infection.
But progress is slow.
A lot of the high risk populations are illiterate and don’t have access to television or radio,
so getting the information to them via mass communications isn’t a workable strategy.
That means developing grassroots campaigns and aggressive door-to-door strategies are
currently the best option; both of which have begun and have found some success.
Sierra Leone ran the largest operation of this kind.
They put the entire country on lockdown for 3 full days, and insisted that people stay
in their homes so that aid workers could go door to door with bars of soap and information
about the disease.
They reached more than 75% of the 1.5 million households they were targeting.
Obviously, this is an ongoing issue, so if you’re interested in learning more about
it - then please go check out our playlist on the subject.
It includes our other two videos on Ebola and some work by news sources that we find
reliable.
And remember - we release five videos a week, so please subscribe.