Reference no: EM132254205
Please answer each question clearly...
Case Study : The Terror of Ebola
Ebola is a terrifying disease. Victims of the virus suffer from high fever, chills, continuous vomiting and diarrhea, muscle aches, bleeding, severe headaches, rashes, and uncontrollable hiccups. Death rates can range from 25%–90%. The infection puts the body into shock and causes dehydration, low blood pressure, and organ failure. There is no known cure, but patients who receive fluids and other forms of support are much more likely to survive. However, victims may never fully recover, experiencing chronic joint pain and blurred vision for the rest of their lives. Ebola, first identified in 1976, is transmitted from fruit bats to humans in Africa. It then spreads through contact with the bodily fluids of victims. (This puts medical personnel at particular risk.) Past outbreaks were small and limited to rural areas. That all changed in 2014–2015, when an epidemic in West Africa spread from rural regions to major cities in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. According to conservative estimates, 28,000 were infected and more than 11,000 died. Leaders were slow to respond to the crisis. Government officials initially refused to acknowledge the epidemic and health officers failed to share information with their counterparts in neighboring countries. Local authorities were afraid of declaring a state of emergency for fear of frightening airlines (who might stop flights) and mining companies in this, one of the poorest regions of the world. Some regional medical personnel resisted outside help. Executives at the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control underestimated the extent of the epidemic (at one point, prematurely declaring it over). Some nurses, fearing infection, refused to treat Ebola patients. Early intervention could have contained the spread of Ebola. Instead, the epidemic caught fire. The area’s few area hospitals and clinics, which often lacked such basics as hand soap, gloves, and running water, were quickly overwhelmed and the health system collapsed. As world leaders held back, brave volunteers stepped into the breach. Time magazine named these Ebola fighters its 2014 Persons of the Year while asking why the global health system was so slow to respond.
Why, in short, was the battle against Ebola left for month after crucial month to a ragged army of volunteers and near volunteers: doctors who wouldn’t quit even as their colleagues fell ill and died; nurses comforting patients while standing in slurries of mud, vomit, and feces; ambulance drivers facing down hostile crowds to transport passengers teeming with the virus; investigators tracing chains of infection through slums hot with disease; workers stoically zipping contagious corpses into body bags in the sun; patients meeting death in lonely isolation to protect others from infection?1
Eventually, the WHO., the United States government, and other groups joined local residents, Doctors Without Borders, and other volunteers in the fight against Ebola, setting up a network of clinics. At the same time, regional authorities enforced quarantine and travel restrictions. They created separate graveyards for Ebola victims and banned private burials. The epidemic subsided by the summer of 2015. Political and cultural factors complicated the battle against Ebola. After years of civil war and unrest in the region, many residents didn’t trust their governments. Some believed that the government officials created the epidemic in order to solicit funds from international donors. Authorities raised fear levels by sending inept public health messages, such as that Ebola is an automatic death sentence. Riots broke out Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia, when authorities tried to isolate a crowded neighborhood. Angry mobs threatened medical workers trying to identify victims. In West Africa, families of all religious traditions provide hands-on care to the ill and prepare the bodies of loved ones for burial, which resulted in the infection of relatives until this practice was banned. According to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, “The messages about don’t touch the dead, wash your hands, if somebody is sick, leave them—these were all strange things, completely contrary to our tradition and culture.”2 Treatment centers were seen as places where victims went to die surrounded by medical personnel dressed head to toe in protective clothing resembling space suits. Experts predict that there will be future Ebola epidemics. And the next epidemic could be as devastating as this one. Wealthier nations refuse to increase their contributions to rebuild the health care infrastructure in West Africa. They have also reduced their donations to the WHO. An independent panel concluded that the WHO is unprepared to handle another Ebola or similar epidemic due to budget cuts and reluctance to overrule local government officials. Until recently, pharmaceutical companies opted not to develop a vaccine for Ebola because they don’t profit off of medicines developed for diseases in poor nations. The failure of the world community means that when the terror of Ebola strikes again, it will once again result in thousands of painful and needless deaths.
Discussion Probes
1. Do medical personnel have the responsibility to care for patients no matter the risk in doing so?
2. How do you determine when the need for public health should take precedence over local customs, such as hands-on care for the dead?
3. What is the responsibility of government leaders and citizens in wealthy nations to the health care needs of people in poorer regions?
4. What, if anything, should be done to narrow the gap in medical care between wealthy and poor countries?
5. What can be done to prevent a future Ebola epidemic? To better prepare and respond?
6. How can governments encourage drug companies to develop medications for “unprofitable” diseases like Ebola?
7. What leadership and followership ethics lessons do you take from this case?