Global view from Bishop Bill Atwood
Almost exactly fourteen years ago, in November 2000, I was traveling from Lango to the North of Uganda when I came to a police roadblock. The road was completely barricaded, blocked by police vehicles and vicious looking tire spike strips across the lanes.
Except for medical personnel, no one was allowed past the roadblock. Not only that, no one was allowed out either. The occasion was an outbreak of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever in a village called Rwot-Obillo about 23 kilometers (about 14 miles) from the town of Gulu. Ultimately, about 225 people died from the Ebola outbreak. Instituting a travel ban kept the disease from spreading.
Now in West Africa there is another outbreak of the disease. The problem is that it can spread. Though health officials are quick to point out that Ebola is “hard to contract,” and requires contact with bodily fluids, the fact remains that two health care providers contracted the disease despite wearing “Haz-Mat” protective gear. Most likely they breached the protocol for using the protective gear, but they still contracted Ebola. The storehouse of information about the disease is growing at a tremendous rate right now. The big concern should be two-fold. First–caring for the people who have contracted the disease. In West Africa, the mortality rate for Ebola sufferers is about 70%. In Western settings with negative pressure isolation rooms and high tech care, the mortality rate is somewhere around 40-50%. Some of that depends on when the person begins to receive care. Even in challenging areas of Africa, care is improving, but it is still a terrible situation.
There is a lot of research going on right now about the disease. In the last few days, there was a report from Malaysia that researchers thought they might have found a cure, but it will take time for things to get through the supply chain even if a cure or effective treatment is found.
Even with limited resources, the Ugandan’s staved off a public health disaster by honesty, courage, wisdom, and hard work. Health officials and politicos in other nations would do well to learn from their African brothers.
The Rt. Rev. Bill Atwood is Bishop of the ACNA International Diocese and an American Anglican Council contributing author.
