When our mentor Daniel Fountain served in the Congo in 1995
there was an Ebola Virus Disease outbreak starting in Kikwit which eventually
killed 240 out of 300 people infected once the virus spread from village people
to the hospital setting. Many health care workers died. This disease was first noticed about 40 years
ago, and the recent West African outbreak from December 2013 to June 2016 was
the first to get to major cities and threaten the health care systems of three
nations while killing 40 percent of people infected for a total of over 10,000
horrible deaths. In Liberia 10% of the health care workers died, and many
hospitals and clinics needed to be closed. In October 2014, with funding from
One Great Hour of Sharing, we began work on the animation Understanding Ebola:
Prevention, Symptoms and Treatment with funding from Here is the link for internet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGi2paf-Mu0
Over time this animation has climbed to third position for Ebola animations on
YouTube showing that people found it useful.
Good news about Ebola? The results of a vaccination trial by
Merck done in Guinea tested 6000 people who were vaccinated with the rVSV-ZEBOV
vaccine. The stunning result is that all
the people vaccinated early after exposure to a person with Ebola virus were
protected from infection, and that that vaccine is safe. It also seems to
protect contacts who were not vaccinated, known as herd immunity. Even though
further work will need to be done, 300,000 doses have been stockpiled, against
the day when Ebola virus is detected again in Africa or elsewhere. For the
first time, a vaccine now exists which will help stop the next outbreak from
infecting many more people in major cities.
Looking back on this tragedy, we see the result of what
happens when we work together and find solutions. Now instead of desperation
and hiding people away, the next outbreak will be met with effective vaccination. From the days of Edward Jenner, dairymaids
and pock-free faces with vaccination it took about 200 years to end smallpox.
Could Ebola be ended in four decades since its discovery by vaccination? We
hope so!