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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: 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