Arming for Ebola World War

Stephen Mpofu Correspondent
These past few weeks have seen Zimbabweans shivering under an unusually cold spell in August and September of all calendar months when the sun should have started to crack as summer warmth for all to soak in and savour.
The usually frigid weather has been building up for years, thanks to large spillages of toxic, carbon dioxide – laden fumes from primitive factory chimneys in the West and into the atmosphere, thereby thinning the ozone layer, a shield that protects earth from the sun’s ultra-violet rays.

Add to that challenge the aggravation by Africa and the rest of the developing world and the globe is bedevilled by climate change, causing droughts and floods that devastate economies with diseases afflicting people in affected areas.

But wait for this. A more spine-chilling, wits numbing shadow of a monster has been creeping in imperceptibly across Southern Africa, lying to waste countless lives in its wake, as it has done elsewhere.

The beast in question is non other than the Ebola virus rearing its ugly head across West Africa, where it has already left thousands of its victims cold and frozen to return to mother Earth.

As in West Africa, SADC region country borders are porous, breachable and daily see, in some cases, leakages of illegal immigrants stealing across land boundaries on foot or across river boundaries by canoe or simply by fording the rivers in search of jobs or, precious minerals or while peddling drugs or foreign currencies.

It is more of these illegal immigrants than those who use designated entry points who pose the greatest threat to the transmission of Ebola from countries now under fire to those still relatively safe from the killer disease.

So while setting up quarantines at entry points to different countries is a measure commendable in a fight against the killer disease, village communities probably deserve greater attention by the powers that be to protect them from Ebola carriers.

It is because these communities remain covered under a warm blanket of ignorance as it were, but one that is no impregnable shield against a disease for which no vaccine to cure it has been developed.

In West Africa the Ebola virus was ignited like a small fire in the villages by carriers from urban centres. It then grew into a blaze that swept across populations there leaving behind deaths totalling more than 2 000 as of this week but with fears of an escalation as America and the United Nations swooped in with medical personnel and equipment to set up field hospitals and train locals to combat the spread of a disease that leading politicians and health experts say threatens the very existence of human beings globally.

In Zimbabwe today there is no doubt that Ebola grabs the headlines as much in the public media as it does on peoples lips – but mostly in urban centres that do not boast large concentrations of people as in the communal lands.

It would not surprise anyone were talk about Ebola a kind of fairy tale among imbibers or even among school children.
It is for the need of a country wide approach to preparing the Zimbabwean population to fight this potential, world health scourge that this pen urges the Government to green light a massive awareness campaign for the containment of any transmission of Ebola from countries now reeling under a disease that has become more feared than AIDS.

Because women are in the forefront of caring for children and the sick at home, while men are away at work or enjoying themselves at drinking places, it is these humble guardians of families who should be targeted more in educational campaigns to prepare them for any Ebola eventuality with schools providing adequate awareness education to pupils.

Zimbabweans are generally well known for their warmth and hospitality towards strangers, and in the wake of Ebola, it is imperative for our people to not continue with the practice of shaking hands in greeting even with complete strangers as any such contact might provide passage for the virus from one agent to another and another and so on.

Health experts also warn that contact with carriers’ fluid such as sweat and saliva is another medium for transmitting the Ebola virus as are customary burial rites that ought now also to be suspended to prevent transmission of the deadly killer disease.

Some if not most of Zimbabwe’s health institutions are woefully equipped to handle the rapturous Ebola, and this must easily be of great concern to the powers that be as the situation renders the country more vulnerable to a wide spread transmission of Ebola.

There is, however, no doubt that the Government is giving as much attention to addressing any deficiencies that exist in the supply of medication and equipment, as to the training of medical personnel to protect the country against any run-away spread of the fearful virus.

Above all, the church which rules and MUST continue govern – the world through prayer should weigh in forcefully in humanity’s dark hour with Ebola.
There is absolutely no doubt that the intercession of God’s people will persuade the Creator to stretch out His hand and rein victory upon the Ebola virus by, for example, empowering nations with knowledge and wisdom in coming up with a vaccine that neutralities the virus.

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