Beware of the Ebola scourge
WITH the world now reduced to a virtual global village, thanks to advances in communication, a contagious disease outbreak is wont to romp across international borders, causing untold fatalities. If contextually the African continent is miniaturised into a homestead, a fire outbreak on one side of the village set up can grow into a conflagration leaving behind it much destruction if fire guards are not put in place.
That, stated simply, is the devastation of lives that an Ebola outbreak reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo is likely to cause if measures are not put in place to halt its march not to countries immediately bordering the DRC but also to countries in southern Africa including our own, because of the free movement of people in the region.
The World Health Organisation reported this week that 30 people had already died following the recent outbreak of Ebola which previously devastated Sierra Leone in West Africa before being contained by WHO and other health experts before it could spread to neighbouring states.
Reports from the World Health Organisation in Geneva, Switzerland, expressed fears that the DRC Ebola outbreak might spread to neighbouring Zambia, Angola as well as to Uganda.
Which puts more countries in southern Africa in danger of exposure to the Ebola virus because of the free movement of people between them and the DRC.
For instance haulage trucks from Southern Africa regularly transport goods to the DRC through Zambia so that drivers are exposed to the Ebola menace. This is in addition to people from those countries freely crossing their common borders for visits to relatives or to conduct business on a daily basis.
Therefore any laissez-faire attitude by governments in the SADC region must give way to contingency measures to prevent the Ebola outbreak from spreading, destroying lives in the process.
Zimbabweans will no doubt heave a sigh of relief to know that the government has already put surveillance measures in place at ports of entry into the country to thwart any potential spread of Ebola to this country, according to sources close to the Ministry of Health.
There is free movement of people on a daily basis between the DRC and Zambia and its other neighbours and between Zambia and Zimbabwe and this makes the spread of the Ebola virus highly possible.
A source close to the Ministry of Health said this week that contaminated water and food were the most common agents for spreading Ebola and so travellers to affected areas should ensure the security of those items for their own safety.
The reports from Geneva said large doses of trial Ebola vaccines were being dispatched to the DRC.
However it remains to be seen how effective human effort and the vaccine will combine to save lives now under threat by Ebola which wrecks havoc in its awake.
Only cooperative initiatives between and among governments in central and southern Africa have the potential to control and wipe off the Ebola scourge before the disease wrecks more havoc in their countries.