The latest Ebola outbreak in the DRC is over:
Today we celebrate the end of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where responders have spent months working tirelessly with their communities to halt the spread of a virus that has now killed more than 2,200.
They did this facing not one but two deadly viruses, with COVID-19 cases first reported in the country in March.
The country came tantalisingly close to reaching zero Ebola cases back in June. But days before the northeastern provinces of North Kivu and Ituri were declared Ebola-free, a new flare-up broke out in the Equateur province – the country's eleventh outbreak since 1976.
More than five months later, the disease has finally been brought to a halt. But while we celebrate this important milestone, we cannot afford to be complacent – especially in the shadow of COVID-19 and other threatening diseases such as Cholera.
[...] The DRC is at a critical juncture. While the terrible streak of three Ebola outbreaks in as many years may be over, the health risks – including COVID-19 – are ever-present. The DRC has more outbreaks of epidemics than any other country in the world, with millions of people also at risk of measles, cholera, and the plague among others. In the context of fragile health systems, conflict, and dwindling livelihoods, now is not the time to turn our backs.
For our part, The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) will continue to support the DRC Red Cross with Ebola surveillance, prevention and preparedness while helping them apply the skills and lessons we have learned to new and compounding challenges. Because if we do not stop outbreaks everywhere, we will not stop them anywhere.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance
DRC = Democratic Republic of the Congo
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Subsentient on Monday November 23 2020, @01:26PM
If Ebola is over there, that makes room for EBOLAIDS to take over!
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Monday November 23 2020, @01:54PM (7 children)
Smallpox is the only disease I know to be eradicated. It's a great accomplishment.
Yet we should have been able to eradicate many more. On polio, we're close. Instead, thanks to distrust and outright stupidity (often of the anti-vaxxer sort, but there are plenty of other stupid moves), we've done worse than delay some eradications, we've given the diseases time and opportunity to evolve resistance to our vaccines. One real bad case was the alleged abuse, by the CIA, of medical credentials. Supposedly, they ran a fake vaccination program in order to collect DNA samples.
My 9th grade English teacher was a polio victim. Walked around with a cane. I didn't know about the polio, and thought she was about 60 years old. Many years later, when by chance I saw her obit, I was surprised to learn she had been only 40 at the time.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by https on Monday November 23 2020, @07:55PM (3 children)
Is there some taboo against having a functional memory I do not know about?
The CIA damn well ADMITTED [npr.org] to doing it. It is not, as you assert, supposed.
It was bad enough that imams were spreading the fictions that vaccines were haram because they were developed from pig materials and/or contained alcohol and/or caused infertility and/or... Even with Pakistan's negligence of public health in favour of the military, they might have beaten it by now if not for the famous TLA's malfeasance.
And your idea that viruses regularly develop resistance to vaccines... I'm going to be charitable and say you are mistaken [nih.gov]. Try "rare" or "not fucking likely".
.
I was tempted to just mod you down and move on, but an urge to explicitly call you foolish (instead of hinting at it) overtook me. I may not be a decent person after all.
Offended and laughing about it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday November 24 2020, @12:40AM (1 child)
Thanks for the clarifications. Though, you could have been less rude. I did not take the time to check more thoroughly. No, I did not know that pathogens are less able to develop vaccine resistance, rather than mere drug resistance. I was thinking in particular of gonorrhea, and my 8th grade science teacher who said we should have had "gonorrhea day" and wiped it out with a concerted, world-wide antibiotic treatment, before resistant strains appeared.
One of the reasons I like informal discussion, as opposed to formal research, is that one can go public with a quick thought that may be incomplete or wrong. Often, I actually do some quick fact checking anyway, rather than rely solely on my memory. Better to have discussion rather than silence. I hope that in a forum for informal discussion, it is understood that comments are not held to the same standards as research papers. This should not have had to be said.
(Score: 2) by https on Tuesday November 24 2020, @02:15AM
If we had to hold ourselves to that standard, the internet would take up about three terabytes, and be boring. Three boring terabytes.
Regarding your clarification, it's hard to be only slightly rude! Maybe I'll try sarcasm next time.
Offended and laughing about it.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday November 24 2020, @07:24PM
I'll touch on the CIA's bad conduct, if I may. You, and I, and a few million other Americans know about it. But, those stories have never been blasted at Joe Sixpack and his family by the media. That sort of thing has never become a political issue. At best, it has been made into a minor embarrassment for a few officials here and there. And, few of us care enough to remember the issue five minutes after we close the web page where it was published.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday November 24 2020, @10:11AM (1 child)
I kinda presume that you're a US citizen. Time frame?
I knew one polio victim pretty well, an uncle (by marriage). Uncle Leo rarely used a wheelchair, sometimes used a cane or two, sometimes used a walker, but was able to walk on his own when he exerted himself. I've met 4 other people who survived polio, but never really got to know them. All were older than me. The CDC says polio wasn't eliminated in the US until 1979, https://www.cdc.gov/polio/what-is-polio/polio-us.html [cdc.gov]
Your teacher could have been my age or younger, but odds are against it.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday November 24 2020, @02:58PM
This was the early 1980s. She had a strict Victorian mindset, too. Quick to send a student to the office, for showing the slightest bit of disrespect. You had to learn to play along, agree with everything she said, and never mind what you really thought. That old school teaching style was another reason I thought she was older.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 03 2020, @10:41AM
Around 60, walked with either one or two arm braces. Had polio as a child and said she was walking proof for why we should be greatful for all the vaccinations and advances in medical technology we had in our day (this was the 1980s). Having personally only survived a birth defect due to the perfect storm of luck of having a nurse who'd had a similar defect as a child (DES related) and lucky enough to have one of the top pediatric surgeons in that specialty at the hospital when I was sick, I managed to have mine caught early before it could cause serious lifetime lung damage and get surgery in my first day of life.
Unfortunately the medical group who offered me such wonderful treatment back then has turned into a bunch of beancounters today better known for their sometimes illegal levels of negligence or penny pinching and general disregard for anyone who isn't insured and on medicare, so they can bill them extra. Sadly that have left me unable to provide a similar level of care to my children unless they get extremely lucky in where I reside when they are born/being raised. :(
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 23 2020, @03:21PM (4 children)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/one-four-people-ebola-affected-areas-believe-disease-fake/ [telegraph.co.uk]
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/01/fighting-ebola-hard-congo-fake-news-makes-it-harder [sciencemag.org]
Enough said. So what do you expect from COVID? Different virus, different place, same human idiocy.
(Score: 2) by tizan on Monday November 23 2020, @04:21PM (3 children)
That is the problem that internet has emphasized..Any idiot who is known enough is going to say stupid things and people catch on it.
Experts voices' can be drowned by idiocy.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 23 2020, @05:35PM
See it daily on the evening news.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Monday November 23 2020, @09:35PM (1 child)
That's not the only factor, though.
A big part of the story is anti-intellectualism: The idea that a random average person is more likely to reach the correct conclusion on a subject than somebody who has devoted years of study and practical experience to that subject. Which is really an expression of extreme arrogance on the part of the random average person both spouting the viewpoint and those who believe the average person over the expert.
For example, when someone promotes complete nonsense with the cry of "do your own research!", I can guarantee that that person has in fact done basically no research, and has no idea what real research would consist of. Because what they mean by "do your own research" is "search the web, and pick out headlines that seem to match your opinion", but real research would involve a few years of warm-up study to grok the methods and terminology commonly used in that subject (including grokking why they're used), an extensive review of a large enough percentage of the current literature on the subject to determine mainstream vs crackpot results and the reasons for that categorization, and finally some real-world testing of the answers you come up with.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 24 2020, @10:01AM
Oh I've totally done research. I've watched hours of YouTube videos, skimmed hundreds of articles, read thousands of memes. I totally know what I'm talking about. You can tell because I get so many likes/retweets/echoes/up votes and I wouldn't get those if I said something they disapprove of -- I mean was factually incorrect. If you disagree, you can learn more by watching this 37 hour YouTube video [youtube.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday November 23 2020, @03:26PM (3 children)
African nations' experience in dealing with multiple serious pandemics has actually been critical to their remarkably effective Covid-19 response. As an example, Niger, population 23 million, has fewer than 100 known Covid-19 deaths. And the reason is that both governments and populations have learned the hard way that ignoring deadly diseases will do far more damage than acknowledging them and addressing them.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 23 2020, @05:38PM
Pretty sure it is because they aren't doing superfluous and unreliable testing.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 23 2020, @07:53PM (1 child)
Competent African government? Let’s not violate Occam’s Razor
Perhaps because the age distribution is weighted to the young and the warm temperatures and humidity inhibit virus transmission
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 24 2020, @10:18AM
Because all of Africa shares the same climate, the same weather even. In which case, we have to wonder why DRC seems to see more ebola than say, South Africa, or Kenya, or Morroco.
Could it be that you have an American's over simplistic view of 'The Dark Continent'?