On militaising epidemics in Africa

Dear Pambazuka editor,

Thank you for your compelling article, Demilitarizing epidemics in Africa.

Where's the epidemic, the worst outbreak in world history, please? ECOWAS estimated for 2013 that the population of "West Africa" is approximately 340 million. Early in September the number of deaths attributed to Ebola in West Africa was 1200, which is 0.00036% of West Africa’s population. According to your recent article, the Obama administration pledged $ 1.26 billion to fighting against Ebola that has already claimed more than 2,800 lives in West Africa. This campaign to stop the worst virus outbreak in history has less warrant than claiming to invade Iraq because of their hidden weapons of mass destruction.

Peter Piot, the Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicien, former head of UNAIDS and a Professor of Global Health, has declared a health emergency due to Ebola outbreak in West Africa, commanding $11 million in the last few days to roll out a new experimental drug in the effort to manage the virus. But also broadcast in the same news feeds through the BBC World Service is the report that 950 deaths were reported due to Ebola "in West Africa" to date.

Emeritus Professor of African history Charles L. Geshekter (State U. California at Chico) recently queried: “Does anyone reference the Ebola outbreak in 1995 in western Congo (in the city of Kikwit)?" There, the actual estimates of the population wander from 400,000 to 1 million and the death toll had been claimed to reach anywhere from 350 to 500,000. Even so, the whole scare died down quickly and cheaply once the filthy hospital (and moratorium) were cleaned up. The result was that the Ebola was contained in a few days.

But of course, GAVI was not set upon finding a market for an experimental vaccine, currently in trial in UK. With the distribution due in December, scare-mongering is next on the treatment regime plan. BBC World Service had a special feature in the news alerting the world to the current state of the Ebola Crisis Outbreak in Ghana. Absolutely no cases to report whatsoever... but still room to manipulate fear, because of the situation in neighboring countries. Industries and import schedules upset, prices on necessity goods rising because of this disruptive exercise to build a market for the vaccine industry.

Jerry Brown, a medical officer in Liberia who must be high level or he would not be on the BBC World Service getting interviewed, was just telling the BBC that he has no idea and a fortiori no control over the nature of the military personnel being sent to Monrovia by the US to help with this historically sinister Ebola outbreak. So the BBC closes the clip by saying they will try to pose his questions to the US representatives in charge of publicizing what is, essentially, an undercover military occupation, dressed as public health assistance.

No one appears to have involved the Liberian Ministry of Health in determining the kind of expertise coming. They reported as not knowing whether they are being sent combat soldiers to constrain the population’s mobility, or trained medical personnel capable of handling a range of medical emergencies and needs for primary health care.

Dr. Christian Fiala, MD and PhD based in Austria, Vienna, has worked for decades in Tanzania and Uganda as a GP in outpost clinics and hospitals. He observes:

- 44% of the African population has no access to clean drinking water (UNDP, Human Development Report 2004). This is the highest percentage of all continents. http://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/october-2007/bringing-water-africa’s-poor

- "Ten million people annually have gained access to improved drinking water over 1990-2004 in sub-Saharan Africa. However, the population has grown even faster with the result that the absolute number of unserved people has increased by about 60 million over the same period." from African Development Bank and the OECD Development Centre.

- " Sub-Saharan Africa had the largest number of water-stressed countries of any other place on the planet and of an estimated 800 million people who live in Africa, 300 million live in a water stressed environment" Conference “Water Scarcity in Africa: Issues and Challenges” 03 octobre 2012, Paris, France, http://www.gisclimat.fr/manifestation-scientifique/conférence-“water-scarcity-africa-issues-and-challenges”

- "More people in the world have access to mobile phones than clean drinking water or a toilette" http://www.purewaterbox.ca/2012/12/water-drops-6/
http://www.purewaterbox.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/cell-phones-vs-clean-drinking-water.png

Quoting Dr. Fiala further: “It is needless to say that clean drinking water is the very basis of a healthy life or rather the basis of life itself. Lack of clean drinking water on the other hand is the main reason for increased morbidity and mortality. Given the scandalous low access to clean water in Africa one is really wondering why anyone is spending a second thought or even a single dollar on Ebola.”

According to Dr. Fiala (email correspondence September 27): "What happened in Africa with sick people who were labelled AIDS victims is that they did not receive any medical care let alone much needed medical treatments. Because under the prevailing theory they would die anyway. So it was considered a waste to give them care and medicines. The reasoning was that the scarce resources should be spent on sick people who had a chance to survive their illness. This widespread behavior resulted in a self-fulfilling and self-enforcing prophecy that people with AIDS died. This terrible result was then used as a confirmation that AIDS really was a ‘killer’ disease. The same seems to happen with Ebola."