Has Africa matured in containing contagious infections like Ebola?

Ebola was first discovered in 1976. Outbreaks have surfaced from time to time ever since. The disease is particularly deadly, though in the current outbreak, about 60% of those infected have died, according to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC). While Ebola and HIV have a similar reproductive number of 1 to 4, they are different in many ways. This is because HIV and Ebola both are present in the blood, but the ways they infect cells, the way they live in the body are very different. Compared to the airborne organisms spread by casual contact, it takes effort to get infected with both of these viruses.

Though Ebola is a very deadly virus and is responsible for more than 5177 deaths in less than one year from its inception as reported by World Health Organisation (WHO), it has the possibility of infecting a good number of fans from a football pitch audience but expert stress that it is not an easy one to catch.

First of all, the virus is not airborne, so you can't get it by simply being in close proximity to a patient, as you might with a cold or a flu virus as the disease only spreads through direct contact with a victim's body fluids.

That means it's very unlikely a person will contract Ebola just by being in the same room, airplane, bus or elevator as someone with the virus. Particularly if the person is not yet showing symptoms of illness from Ebola , which include bleeding, vomiting and diarrhea. Nonetheless, the risk increases further when one is exposed to blood of a victim of an Ebola patient.

Now the questions has to whether Africa has matured to contain the spread of infectious diseases like Ebola lies in the Knowledge Altitude and Practices (KAP) of most African societies. For instance, people in African societies often live in very close contact with each other with a dozen or more family members in the same house which is a fact acknowledged by most experts. Also, West African burial practices where the epidemic struck, often involve family members washing and preparing the body, which puts people in direct contact with Ebola-laden body fluid, whilst in the western worlds, people live much more spread out, and professionals handle the preparation of a body for burial. In addition, developed countries’ (western worlds’) health care and public health services are much savvier when it comes to controlling infectious disease.

Doctors and nurses are quick to put sick people in protective isolation, and to protect themselves with bio-suits. Even people who are taking care of them have a minimal risk of becoming infected.

However, what has taken most advanced medical thinkers and popular Africa medical columnist like the author of this article aback, is the fact that every day we take care of people with notorious infectious disease like hepatitis and active TB, which both are more infectious than Ebola but we have always managed to contain their spread. Some may argue that it’s because Ebola has no vaccine, hence, the reason for its rampant spread but how come previous outbreaks where more manageable than this one? What's more, Ebola is much less contagious than many other more common diseases.

The virus, much like HIV or hepatitis, is spread through blood or bodily fluids and is not airborne. The virus further wreaks life-threatening havoc on the body by attacking multiple organ systems simultaneously. Therefore, this is no simple condition that has to be entertained but needs to be contained within a shortest period of time no matter which race or continent is affected. However, one big question not asked by many on the reluctance by countries with a presumed cure, is whether this is not a skim of series of bio attack by the residents of the artificial world (western world) on the Natural nurtured countries (African continent) to create demand for their secretly kept cures only meant for their likened skin colour?.. Just like it is presumed and documented that the HIV virus may have been laboratory engineered by the scientist from the west, to initially eliminate the so cold ‘black race’, it cannot be completely ruled out that the recent more virulent spread of the Ebola virus might be one of their making, judging by their precedence to selectively cure their ‘kind’.

Nevertheless, many factors play into how contagious a disease is thought to be and among those factors are:-How it's transmitted (airborne, bodily fluids, other)- Infection-control practices in place -Extent of contact an infected person has with others -Percent of the population that has been vaccinated (if a vaccine exists)

To gauge how contagious different diseases are, experts take these and other things into account and estimate the average number of people likely to catch the illness from a single infected person. They call this the basic reproductive rate or number. The number is an average, a scientific guess, experts say, and it is likely to vary from country to country. We would anticipate the reproductive rate for Ebola in an African set up to be a little bit higher due to lack of infection prevention measures in place and general poor quality of health care delivery systems in place, whilst, in the Western country it would be at zero due to advanced health care services from technology to well-resourced health centres.

By comparison, measles, diphtheria, and whooping cough are all airborne, and they can be transmitted by just being in face-to-face contact with an infected patient, without touching them. When that person coughs or sneezes, others may become infected after breathing in the organisms. Whilst a vaccine and curative therapies might exist for the above mentioned conditions, there’s no clinically certified availed cure or vaccine for Ebola. Hence, with the current unlimited spread of the Ebola virus, it is likely to pose a risk of an international public health emergency or reach pandemic levels.

Therefore, for the love of soccer and other sports that pull crowds of spectators, it is important to institute strict infection prevention measures as a way to halt the spread of the virus. Furthermore, it would humanly make sense to come-up with a charity fundraising corner for the families affected by the effects of the epidemic. One reason for this could be that the lives lost from the Ebola virus are soccer/sport fans that would have loved to rally behind their favorite teams but couldn’t because their lives were cut short. Secondly, the survivors exposed to the virus would also feel treasured as they would sacrifice a live match from a stadium to a telecast one in order to avoid exposing more people to the virus. Even though, screening for the virus should start earlier bearing in mind the incubation period of the Ebola virus of 2-21 days.

In summary, if the people with right skills are put in place, in the facilitation of events with potential environment for the spread of Ebola virus, it is likely to be appreciated that Africa is mature to contain contagious conditions like Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever. For now, we can only wish the best to the teams likely to participate in the tournament slated for 2015. As regards African way of life and potential to facilitate the spread of the virus, it is up to each and every community to adopt hygiene practices that promote general good health. This is possible because Africa and Africans do not necessarily lack the knowledge, resources or technology to overcome such diseases but lacks a good attitude towards attaining a favourable development level.

FOR COMMENTS & QUESTIONS JONES. H. MUNANG’ANDU (author) Motivational speaker, health commentator & Health practitioner Mobile; 0966565670/0979362525 jonesmuna@yahoo.com

Editor's Note: newsle.com/MUNANGANDU123456789