We are rushing to drop bombs on Iraq while we have dithered about sending drugs to Africa
The language is familiar. A potential threat of a human catastrophe unparalleled in modern times. More than 2,500 have died, and the same number are dying. Incidence of the disease is said to be doubling, even trebling, in some parts of Africa by the month. Hundreds of thousands now face death. Barack Obama declares a menace spiralling out of control, getting worse with profound economic, political and security implications for all of us. The window of opportunity to contain the outbreak is apparently closing.
Africa is now six months into the worst Ebola epidemic in modern history. The director general of the World Health Organisation, Margaret Chan, calls the outbreak the largest, most complex and most severe weve ever seen. The UN remarks that we could stop the Ebola outbreak in west Africa in six to nine months, but only if a massive global response is implemented. As it is, the number of new cases is moving far faster than the capacity to manage them. According to Chan, there is not one single bed available for the treatment of an Ebola patient in the entire country of Liberia.
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