With 70 per cent mortality recorded in past outbreaks, no human disease comes close to Ebola in killing those it infects, doctors claim. With no known proven cure, other than what is claimed in the United States as experimental drug treatment on aid workers infected in West Africa, and no vaccine to prevent infection, treatment is focused only on alleviating symptoms. But should the rest of the world fret over a disease and take extreme precautions when the virus is restricted to countries with some of the lowest human development rankings?
Explosive media coverage is known to exaggerate each outbreak of a dreaded disease, from seasonal flu through swine flu down to bird flu. All that such scare scenarios achieve is to enrich pharmaceutical companies, already the world’s premier fat cats. Although this is the worst known Ebola outbreak after 14 such past events, the disease itself is not all that infectious, say experts who point out that direct contact with bodily fluids of an infected person is required for the virus to be transmitted. Truth to tell, Ebola can be contained.
By setting up airport scanners and getting all airport employees to wear masks at arrival halls and other such precautions, we are only likely to raise the scare scenario further. The world has to try and take care of diseases like malaria and tuberculosis that spread exponentially, rather than put people of a certain region under a stigma as we did so palpably during the SARS outbreak.
