It's not stupidity, it's cultural practices that's the problem. Eating off of the body is a practice that is going to cause a whole lot of problems as well as washing the body after death as the body is at its most infectious some 24-48 hours after death. There are people paying mortuary assistants to list their dead as dying from anything other than Ebola related so that they can wash the body and so I believe that there will unfortunately be many more to die yet. Containment and reeducation seem to be the only answers.
I agree these are problems on the ground that need to be hurdled. But the big picture is this is an emergency that the world is being made aware too late. I see the WHO is now admitting being incompetent. I could have told them months ago. This situation doesn't just need charity like money or donations. It needs governments mobilising and sending resources like people to help break the back of that virus transmission. This will take a huge concerted effort. This should not be viewed as a 'charity' situation. A more appropriate analogy is a war one. War against the spread of Ebola.
I'm surprised people are comparing this to other foreign aid. Surely, the main point is being missed here. This is a deadly, contagious virus and it is spreading. If nothing is done to tackle it at source, it will arrive here - to people in THIS country and when that happens, how can you guarantee it won't reach you or someone you care about? Let's understand the implication here. A woman arrives in Ohio on a flight and is diagnosed days later as having Ebola. Imagine how many people she's infected coming into America on that flight. Now imagine how many people they've infected, and so on. U.S. government are trying to track down all the people on that flight, but even they accept that they can't guarantee how many may have forwarded it on themselves. And this is NOT an African state, not among ignorant, backward or so-called dirty people, but arguably the most civilised and advanced country in the world. For once there is no foreign aid vs home aid debate imo. This is universal, helping them is actually going to help us. I'm amazed people can't see it. I'm not worried at the moment, but when the first case is identified in the UK and you start thinking...
No chance, my face is made of reinforced molten steel! btw along with this Ebola outbreak, I'm waiting for news that some intelligent apes somewhere have just taken over a city...
I dunno about intelligent, but next time you're in Liverpool do a quick count of the average number of hairs per individual...
