Introduction
It has been all over the headlines in the last two
days that some man in Dallas, although no details have been given about who he
is, his citizenship status, or even where in Liberia he went, has contracted
Ebola and brought it to US soil. The
overarching question is less about how to protect the USA from Ebola, but more
of how to protect the entire world from it.
There are many proposals on how to deal with this, but only a
combination of all of the solutions can achieve victory over this disease, and
save the sixty percent of the world’s population.
What is Ebola and How Does it Work?
Ebola is a very stealthy virus very similar to
those movies wherein an alien or other creepy being uses a mind control device. Because it is a virus, it uses the body’s
cells to replicate instead of reproducing or using mitosis (a cell splitting
evenly). Because it has overtaken these
cells and controls their “minds”, the cells do not send out any signals to the
immune system that there is anything wrong with the body. By the time the immune system is aware that
something is wrong, the Ebola Virus has already spread. At this point, the body either makes a full
recovery because the immune system is super intelligent, or the immune system
is acts like the irrational general who always has his finger on the nuclear launch
button and kills the body. At least sixty
percent of the victims to Ebola have the latter immune system, and I say “at
least sixty percent” because many of the survivors of Ebola have survived
because they were treated just before or during the “nuclear strike”.
The “nuclear strike” that I am referring to is the
hemorrhaging that is so commonly seen in Ebola patients. This happens because the body realizes that
its body is overrun with cells being controlled by Ebola and the body becomes
paranoid that everyone is controlled by Ebola, so the immune system views the
tissue, organs, and even the blood vessels as part of Ebola instead of actually
targeting Ebola itself. Because it
attacks the blood vessels, the body bleeds internally and externally.
Step 1: Containment
The first step to making sure that no one contracts
Ebola is to make sure that the people that already have Ebola or have been
exposed to people with Ebola are quarantined.
The problem is logistics in this case considering that Ebola is mainly
occurring in four different African nations that have more than a million
people and virtually no infrastructure.
These are four sovereign nations, so it is extremely difficult to go in
there and take over their country. Many
of the average citizens of these four nations already hate Europe and the US because
we have influenced and intervened in their affairs more than we should have for
our own selfish benefits. Therefore, the
people of these nations do not trust us.
It is with that in mind that we need to use force as a means of containing
this virus. The only way we can lockdown
these nations is to have a group of nations send a massive amount of troops to
the reason. This is not necessarily to
occupy the region, but to make sure that everyone who is sick either is treated
or dies in isolation. We also need to
send all of the experts in virology, endocrinology, and immunology to these
nations to make sure that we can do the necessary research into finding a cure
for the Ebola Virus. By continuing to
transport people from these countries to a developed country for treatment, we
are increasing the risk to the developed world.
So far, the man that was infected is in isolation and there is only one
more suspected case of Ebola from someone he came into contact with. If this had occurred in Africa, there would
be hundreds or thousands of people infected by now. Therefore, infrastructure is key to
containing this disease, and it will make the developing countries better at
defending this kind of a threat in the future.
The other way to contain this is to burn all of
the bodies in an incinerator. It is
traditional in many African nations to touch the body of the deceased. Considering that the body most likely has
some of the Ebola Virus still left alive because the body bleeds externally and
the Ebola virus survives very easily outside of the body. The body must not be allowed to contaminate
anything, so the best way to contain the touching of dead bodies is to
incinerate them.
Another way to contain this virus is to prevent
any and all people from these four countries from being allowed to leave the
country, and to prevent all people from entering the country unless they are
soldiers helping to lock down the country or medical workers. Medical workers inside the country need to
make sure that they have a facility that they can clean up in and get tested before
leaving the country so that it does not continue to spread. Ebola is not a virus to trifle with. Just like with any virus, adaption is
inevitable, and the more bodies it passes to, the better the chances are that
it could mutate into an airborne disease.
Therefore, keeping it contained is of the utmost importance.
Step 2: Education
One of the problems in Africa right now is the
general distrust of the west and proper medicinal practices. Much like the modern anti-vaccine movement,
these distrusts are based on misinformation.
About a month and a half ago there were some riots in one of these
countries where the leaders of the riot claimed that Ebola was not actually a
virus and the West was just trying to impose their political ill-will on their
country. Another riot happened because
the people claimed that their family member/friend did not have Ebola, but was
put into a hospital right next to an Ebola patient. The latter is definitely a problem, and it
would not surprise me in the slightest if that actually happened.
These problems are precisely why education is
necessary. The way to get the word out
is to teach the family members and friends of the patient how the virus works
and spreads when the doctor diagnoses that person with Ebola. Billboards and pamphlets are another great
way to do it as well.
The best way to get the word out is to convince
the religious leaders that it is a problem and have them deal with the
issue. Most of the people that are
leading riots or hiding whether some they know has Ebola are Muslims. The Christians in the area generally are
partnering with organizations such as Samaritan’s Purse, who were the first
responders to the outbreak because the rest of the world did not care until it
became a threat to their respective nations.
Educating people via religious means is of the utmost importance because
when religious think that the government is out to get them, their religious
leader is usually right.
Step 3: Investment
As I have mentioned before, the world needs to
make sure that they invest in the infrastructure of these African
countries. The reason that Costa Rica
has become such a nice country is because China and the United States has
invested in the country. Costa Rica has
excellent medical service, good education, and they have started constructing
highways. Because of this, many of the
problems that occur in the rest of Latin America are not as much of a problem
in Costa Rica.
Instead of investing the in the commercialization
of Africa by companies such as Coca-Cola who monopolize the bottled-water
industry and then jack up the price higher than Coca-Cola, would it not be more
intelligent to build hospitals and research facilities there? Sure these kinds of things do not pay the
bills nearly as much in third world countries, but how can 60% of the
population dying pay the tax bills that are due? How can the population pay their bills if
they are too busy hemorrhaging and dying?
Why not invest in good schools so that the populace can think for
themselves and understand the problem and come up with a workable solution to
the problem? Sure investment into
infrastructure will not line the pockets of the rich in the short run, but a
lack of infrastructure will give very few people a decent living. Nicaragua has started to become a better
country in the last ten years only because other countries have started
investing in them, and now their industry is growing.
Conclusion
What We Should NOT Do
We should not plot to nuke these four countries
even if it starts to spiral out of control.
Why? Because Ebola still has a
40% recovery rate when the people are treated.
Another good reason is because the people in those countries are
humans. I am against abortion and I am
against war most of the time, so why would I be in favor of murdering millions
of people to save billions?
We should also not just quarantine the countries
like “Escape from New York”, and let the people do what they want as long as
they do not escape from their country and bring the virus into other
countries. Quarantining these countries
temporarily is important, but investment and education are important as
well. We must maintain diplomatic
communication before, during, and after this is all done.
Ebola is one of the scariest diseases in the
world, and it needs to be treated as such.
We must not live in fear, and we must have the resolve to bring this
outbreak to a close as quickly as humanly possible. If we follow the steps that have been
written, then we will most assuredly have a resolution.
