Health

Africa is really big. It's bigger than not only the United States but all of North America.

Yet judging by the reactions of some Americans, it would seem that Africa were nothing but a small country, and any travel there means you likely will get Ebola.

In reality, only five countries in Africa have had Ebola cases in the current outbreak. All of them -- Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone -- are located in the western part of the continent, and Nigeria and Senegal have since been declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organization after going six weeks without any new cases.

The United States, meanwhile, is still treating two nurses who contracted Ebola after they treated a Dallas patient with the virus.

Nevertheless, Ebola-free African countries have been hit by ignorance, with tourists canceling safaris to places like Kenya, and academic institutions in the United States postponing visits. Even within the United States, individuals of African descent from places like Rwanda are facing discrimination by people who believe they may carry Ebola.

"The tragedy of Ebola goes far beyond the heartbreaking suffering of the people in hardest-hit West Africa," Ashish Sanghrajka, president of Florida-based Big Five Tours and Expeditions, told The Los Angeles Times. "Behind the scenes, another lesser known level of devastation is taking place. Tourism to Africa’s great wildlife destinations including Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa and Botswana is in free-fall, as travelers scheduled to go on safari holidays cancel in droves."

Below are some ways Ebola paranoia is affecting Ebola-free countries. The countries that have had Ebola cases -- even the ones that have been declared Ebola-free in recent days -- are red. The country being referenced is blue.

ETHIOPIA: Three students who had recently returned from a mission trip to Ethiopia set off Ebola fears at an Oklahoma high school. On Monday, 18 students refused to show up for class after rumors circulated on social media. "Our students were not exposed to Ebola," said the school superintendent Dr. Kent Holbrook. "There was no person that was sick on the trip. There was no person sick [in] Ethiopia while they were there. There was no person on the plane." T.J. Helling, the youth pastor who organized the trip, also lamented that the three students were being ostracized. "They did more in the last ten days then post people do in their lifetime for other people. We need to remember that we're here to encourage them and support them. Not beat them down,” Helling said.

KENYA: Kenya is one of Africa's tourism hot spots, and it's been suffering from geographic ignorance during the Ebola outbreak. Blake Fleetwood, of Cook Travel in New York, told the Associated Press in September that he has had 14 groups cancel their safaris in Kenya or South Africa. Some of his clients, he said, "figure somebody from Sierra Leone is going to go to Morocco and the infection is going to spread through the continent."

In the United States, the University of New Mexico canceled a trip for 24 students to go to Kenya to work on various health projects. And in West Virginia, an elementary school teacher who went on a mission trip to Kenya with her church will have to stay home for three weeks -- the time during which Ebola symptoms may appear -- and is cleared by several doctors.

RWANDA: Two students who had moved from Rwanda and were ready for a fresh start at their new school in Maple Shade, New Jersey, are now being kept home due to parents' fears about Ebola. "Anybody from that area should just stay there until all this stuff is resolved. There's nobody affected here let's just keep it that way,” said parent John Povlow, ignoring the fact that New Jersey is actually closer to Texas -- where there have been cases of Ebola -- than Rwanda is to West Africa. The students' enrollment became an issue after the school district notified teachers, and word then leaked out to parents. According to Fox 29, the family has agreed to keep their children home for 21 days.

On Sunday, Rwanda announced that it would be putting travelers coming from the United States and Spain through special screening to test for Ebola. The country has now backtracked on that measure, though.

SOUTH AFRICA: A North Carolina teacher who recently returned from a mission trip in South Africa is being barred from coming back to work for three weeks because people are afraid she may have Ebola. "We just feel like we have to err on the side of caution," said Sonya Cox, a member of the school board. Another community member said he thought it was "a bad mistake, an unwise choice" that the teacher went on that trip.

South Africa also has a bustling tourism industry, and the World Bank recently concluded that a drop in activity due to Ebola fears could have "significant implications for economic growth."

UGANDA: School officials in Catoosa County, Georgia, are trying to reassure parents about two students who are returning from a church mission trip in Uganda. Summer Hennessee, a parent with children at the school, said she didn't want them to be "susceptible" to something they might catch while passing through an airport. School officials put out a statement pointing out that Uganda is 3,000 miles from the Ebola hot zone in West Africa.

In Pewaukee, Wisconsin, four families kept their children at home when the school recently hosted a priest and a teacher from their sister campus in Uganda.
"I don't think people know that Uganda is approximately 3,000 miles away from where West Africa and other outbreaks are," said Pewaukee Public Schools Superintendent Dr. JoAnn Sternke.

ZIMBABWE: The country has already lost about $6 million in tourism revenue as a result of people canceling their trips over Ebola fears, according to Zimbabwe Tourism Authority chief executive officer Karikoga Kaseke. "We have had cancellations (for paid for bookings). People had paid for holidays in Zimbabwe and are demanding their monies back," said Kaseke.

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Ngwa Bertrand

24.Oct.2014

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A Doctors Without Borders physician who recently returned to New York after treating Ebola patients in West Africa has tested positive for the disease, the New York Times reported on Thursday. The doctor, identified as Craig Spencer, was working for the humanitarian organisation in Guinea, one of three West African nations hardest hit by the Ebola virus.  Spencer, 33, was rushed by ambulance to Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital, a designated Ebola centre, after reporting he had a 39.4-Celsius (103-degrees Fahrenheit) fever and diarrhoea, city officials said. “We can safely say that it is a very brief period of time that the patient has had symptoms,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a news conference earlier in the day. A photo posted on Facebook of Craig Spencer in protective clothing in Guinea, where he treated Ebola patients for the humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders. De Blasio said Spencer had described in great detail where he was in the last few days and with whom he had contact. Spencer had not been back to his hospital job or seen patients since returning from West Africa last Friday, New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center said on Thursday. But city officials say he had visited a city park, had a meal at a restaurant, been to a Brooklyn bowling alley, taken at least three subway trains and been for a 3-mile run since his return

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24.Oct.2014

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Mali confirmed its first case of Ebola on Thursday, becoming the sixth West African country to be touched by the worst outbreak on record of the haemorrhagic fever, which has killed nearly 4,900 people. Mali's Health Minister Ousmane Kone told state television that the patient in the western town of Kayes was a two-year-old girl who had recently arrived from neighbouring Guinea, where the outbreak began. "The condition of the girl, according to our services, is improving thanks to her rapid treatment," the minister told state television. A health ministry official, who asked not to be identified, said the girl's mother died in Guinea a few weeks ago and the baby was brought by relatives to the Malian capital Bamako, where she stayed for 10 days in the Bagadadji neighbourhood before heading to Kayes. A ministry statement said the girl, who came from the Guinean town of Kissidougou, was admitted at the Fousseyni Daou hospital in Kayes on Wednesday night, where she was promptly tested for Ebola.

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24.Oct.2014

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Two people in Sierra Leone have died in a riot sparked by health workers attempting to take a blood sample from an elderly woman suspected to be infected with Ebola. At least two people have died and 10 others wounded during clashes between security forces and a machete-wielding mob in the eastern town of Koidu on Tuesday, hospital doctors said on Wednesday. “Two bodies are now at the mortuary. I cannot say whether they have bullet wounds or what caused their deaths as the corpses have not ... been examined [yet],” said one of the doctors. The group of men successfully prevented the medical doctors from drawing blood from a 90-year-old woman, who was the mother of a youth leader, to test for the deadly Ebola virus. “Ebola contact tracers visited the house of a prominent youth leader to take a blood sample of his ailing 90-year-old mother but were barred by a gang of youths” who said the woman did not have the disease, an eyewitness said. Police are on the lookout for the son of the elderly woman, a youth leader named Adamu Eze, who commands wide support in the town and is thought to have gone into hiding. Health organizations say the deadliest Ebola epidemic on record has infected over 6,000 in Sierra Leone and neighboring Liberia and Guinea, killing nearly half of them. In Sierra Leone alone, the epidemic has claimed nearly 1,200 lives as of October 14, according to latest World Health Organization figures.Globally, more than 4,500 people have died from the disease.

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

22.Oct.2014

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A third United Nations employee has been killed by the deadly Ebola virus in the West African country of Sierra Leone. According to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Monday, a driver for the UN Women agency, succumbed to the virus over the weekend in Sierra Leone. A statement by the UN Women agency said that the deceased who had been a driver for the agency since 2005 passed away on Saturday following testing positive for the virus.    He was quarantined on October 14 following his wife showing symptoms of the virus. The wife is still under care at an Ebola treatment center and a UN medical team is trying to trace all the persons who came into contact with the man. Earlier this month, a Sudanese UN health worker died in Germany after caring for Ebola victims in Liberia. 
And the first UN staffer casualty was a Liberian woman who had worked for the peacekeeping mission in Liberia for nearly a decade. She fell ill on September 20 and died on September 22.

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

21.Oct.2014

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The first case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States last month brought with it a fair share of panic to American shores, with questions raised about travel bans on the West African nations hit hardest by the disease and airport screening to find and isolate those who are already sick. But it's worth remembering that this panic may cut both ways. According to the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda, the tiny land-locked East African nation has begun screening passengers from the United States and Spain for the deadly virus. From a note on the embassy's Web site:   Visitors who have been in the United States or Spain during the last 22 days are now required to report their medical condition — regardless of whether they are experiencing symptoms of Ebola — by telephone by dialing 114 between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. for the duration of their visit to Rwanda (if less than 21 days), or for the first 21 days of their visit to Rwanda. Rwandan authorities continue to deny entry to visitors who traveled to Guinea, Liberia, Senegal, or Sierra Leone within the past 22 days. The screening measures have been in place for two days, and images apparently showing the screening forms have been posted on Twitter. Rwanda is far, far away from the West African nations that have experienced the worst of the crisis, yet it is taking no chances: In August, it banned all travelers who had visited Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone in the 22 days preceding their travel.Rwanda's decision seems to be the result of a number of Ebola cases in the United States and Spain in recent weeks. However, there may be an ulterior motive: In New Jersey, two exchange students from Rwanda were recently kept away from school because of the time they had spent in Africa – even though Rwanda is about twice as far away from the Ebola-affected West African states as New Jersey is from Dallas.

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Ngwa Bertrand

21.Oct.2014

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