Common sense is not so common in Western leadership.
A section of Sierra Leone has instituted a quarantine and its working to keep Ebola out.
We don't need rocket science, we need sensible policies to cure the ills of the world. This is exhibit one.
Read Todd Frankel's article here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/11/world/africa/officials-admit-a-defeat-by-ebola-in-sierra-leone.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Aw%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22RI%3A15%22%7D
ReplyDeleteFREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Acknowledging a major “defeat” in the fight against Ebola, international health officials battling the epidemic in Sierra Leone approved plans on Friday to help families tend to patients at home, recognizing that they are overwhelmed and have little chance of getting enough treatment beds in place quickly to meet the surging need.
The decision signifies a significant shift in the struggle against the rampaging disease. Officials said they would begin distributing painkillers, rehydrating solution and gloves to hundreds of Ebola-afflicted households in Sierra Leone, contending that the aid arriving here was not fast or extensive enough to keep up with an outbreak that doubles in size every month or so.
“It’s basically admitting defeat,” said Dr. Peter H. Kilmarx, the leader of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s team in Sierra Leone, adding that it was “now national policy that we should take care of these people at home.”
“For the clinicians it’s admitting failure, but we are responding to the need,” Dr. Kilmarx said. “There are hundreds of people with Ebola that we are not able to bring into a facility.”
Sierra Leone is done. The NGOs have admitted they can't ever get ahead of th4e outbreak there, and "home treatment" is simply a recipe to make family members comfortable until they die, while guaranteeing that the entire family (or at least 90% of it) dies too.
That's a nation of 5.7M, and they already know now they can't win.
Anything from here on out is desperation. Can't hurt, probably won't work anyways.
There was an NPR story a few years ago on some US towns that 'mysteriously' survived the ravages of the 1918 flu pandemic. What did they do? They closed themselves off from the rest of the US with roadblocks, etc. Nobody in or out, restricted trade, driver-swaps at borders, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe reporters acted like it was some stunning new idea, "But would it work in today's world?" Rabble, rabble, rabble...
I guess people need to die before heads get extracted from rectums. The solutions are easy if you're not deluding yourself.