I remember the 2000 Ebola outbreak in Uganda, when I was medical superintendent of Kiwoko Hospital, a rural mission hospital between Lacor hospital, where Dr Matthew Lukwiya died, and Kampala. We were bracing ourselves for the first case - hard to distinguish when fever is also the presentation of malaria. One of our doctors, James Nyonyintono, offered to see all of the possible cases - for which I was very grateful, as a father of two young children. We had no cases, but I remember the anxiety with each case - could this be the one.
There was another outbreak in 2012. I do not know how these were viewed in the western media, since I was in Uganda then. There was talk of a vaccine to Ebola, not because it is disease which affects poor Africans, but because of it being a bioterrorism threat. This was repeated in the New Scientist (July 2014).
We talk of wanting to promote the health and wealth and overall well-being of countries in Africa, but only consider the diseases which paralyse communities, not because they affect human beings (since these human beings are poor and from nations of little significance internationally), but because of a possible threat if these viruses are released into the USA. The economic impact of others such as sleeping sickness is therefore also ignored, yet these affect far more people, than Ebola - but again they are poor and insignificant. If these diseases were in the developed world we would have found a vaccine or cure a long time ago, or at least some treatment, as with HIV.
What should one call this? A form of colonialism? or ethnocentrism? Or even racism?
Competing interests:
No competing interests
09 August 2014
Nick Wooding
GP
South Oxford Health Centre, Lake Street, Oxford, OX1 4RP
Rapid Response:
I remember the 2000 Ebola outbreak in Uganda, when I was medical superintendent of Kiwoko Hospital, a rural mission hospital between Lacor hospital, where Dr Matthew Lukwiya died, and Kampala. We were bracing ourselves for the first case - hard to distinguish when fever is also the presentation of malaria. One of our doctors, James Nyonyintono, offered to see all of the possible cases - for which I was very grateful, as a father of two young children. We had no cases, but I remember the anxiety with each case - could this be the one.
There was another outbreak in 2012. I do not know how these were viewed in the western media, since I was in Uganda then. There was talk of a vaccine to Ebola, not because it is disease which affects poor Africans, but because of it being a bioterrorism threat. This was repeated in the New Scientist (July 2014).
We talk of wanting to promote the health and wealth and overall well-being of countries in Africa, but only consider the diseases which paralyse communities, not because they affect human beings (since these human beings are poor and from nations of little significance internationally), but because of a possible threat if these viruses are released into the USA. The economic impact of others such as sleeping sickness is therefore also ignored, yet these affect far more people, than Ebola - but again they are poor and insignificant. If these diseases were in the developed world we would have found a vaccine or cure a long time ago, or at least some treatment, as with HIV.
What should one call this? A form of colonialism? or ethnocentrism? Or even racism?
Competing interests: No competing interests