We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.
Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.Help Now >
Traditional methods of fighting disease are not working in West Africa
FREE Catholic Classes
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which continues to ravage countries like Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, has so far proved resistant to traditional methods of combating epidemics, notably contact tracing.
Highlights
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)
9/11/2014 (9 years ago)
Published in Africa
Keywords: Ebola, Health, Africa, International, Nigeria, Liberia, World Health Organization
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Lt. Rebecca Levine, an officer with the U.S. Public Health Service, has seen that contact tracing, a process which helped stop diseases such as SARS and smallpox, does not seem to be working in West Africa.
You can be a light in the darkness with "prayer and action."
Contact tracing is a relatively simple procedure; find everyone who has had close contact with an infected individual and track them for 21 days. If any of these contacts become infected, isolate them from the community and repeat the process.
However, this method only works if a list of contacts and their addresses are provided, when Levine arrived to help fight the disease at Sierra Leone, she found that the database she was to work with was "in shambles."
In all, only 20%-30% of all contacts had a usable address, which meant that local contact tracers would have a nearly impossible task before them.
"They were really unfamiliar with what contact tracing was," she said. "And they didn't have the resources they needed."
The United Nations has reported that only 16 of 44 zones in West Africa have sufficient contacts tracing-and this inability to perform the common method is a major reason that the Ebola outbreak continues to grow.
"There's a lot of infection out there. Contact tracing breaks down. Then you have a real problem." said Dr. Bruce Aylward, assistant director-general of the World Health Organization WHO.
Donald Thea, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Boston University School of Public Health, who has worked in Africa for more than 25 years is not surprised that contact tracing is failing.
During his time in Africa he found that many people have no addresses, move a lot, and take their doors and locks to save money, so many streets end up with undecipherable addresses.
Locals are also uncooperative and distrust health care workers, often reacting violently when they come around to collect infected loved ones.
"The community perceives this as a death sentence," he said. "Relinquishing your loved one is tantamount to death."
And health care workers have very little to offer people as an incentive to cooperate.
"With smallpox, we could offer people a vaccine, a carrot in essence to induce them to be cooperative. With Ebola, we have nothing," Thea said.
---
'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'
Copyright 2021 - Distributed by Catholic Online
Join the Movement
When you sign up below, you don't just join an email list - you're joining an entire movement for Free world class Catholic education.
-
Mysteries of the Rosary
-
St. Faustina Kowalska
-
Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary
-
Saint of the Day for Wednesday, Oct 4th, 2023
-
Popular Saints
-
St. Francis of Assisi
-
Bible
-
Female / Women Saints
-
7 Morning Prayers you need to get your day started with God
-
Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Sacrifices of Faith: The Pro-Life Legacies of St. Gianna and Jessica Hanna
-
How to love God by caring for our bodies
-
Pope Francis calls for negotiations to End Russia-Ukraine War
-
Pope Francis Contemplates Return to U.S. for United Nations Assembly Address
-
Pope Francis Calls on Faithful to Embrace Faith, Hope, and Charity in New Teaching Series
Daily Catholic
- Daily Readings for Sunday, April 28, 2024
- St. Peter Chanel: Saint of the Day for Sunday, April 28, 2024
- Prayer before a Crucifix: Prayer of the Day for Sunday, April 28, 2024
- Daily Readings for Saturday, April 27, 2024
- St. Zita: Saint of the Day for Saturday, April 27, 2024
- Prayer for the Dead # 2: Prayer of the Day for Saturday, April 27, 2024
We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.
Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.Help Now >
Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. All materials contained on this site, whether written, audible or visual are the exclusive property of Catholic Online and are protected under U.S. and International copyright laws, © Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. Any unauthorized use, without prior written consent of Catholic Online is strictly forbidden and prohibited.
Catholic Online is a Project of Your Catholic Voice Foundation, a Not-for-Profit Corporation. Your Catholic Voice Foundation has been granted a recognition of tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law.