The Ebola Virus

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Recently, the American government and the African government have attempted to launch two trial vaccinations in an effort to combat the Ebola virus, also known as hemorrhagic fever, and prevent further outbreaks from occurring in the future. These trial vaccinations have shown significant promise in developing the appropriate antibodies to two different strains of the Ebola virus. Most importantly, it has shown significant promise in a large group of test subjects in developing the antibodies necessary to protect them from catching the virus, even when the person has been in direct contact with someone infected with the virus.
The most recent Ebola outbreak brutally killed over 10,000 documented people and possibly more that were never noted …show more content…

As the Ebola outbreak spiraled out of control, the poor were being ignored, sent home to infect their family, their neighbors and their friends. As other countries took notice of the outbreak, more people were able to receive treatment, but there were not enough relief workers to handle the number of people who were coming to clinics and the sick were still being turned away.
Most of the relief efforts did come from outside countries and the African government was not willing to invest financially in order to save their own people from certain death or the spread of the disease. The government also relied on other countries for decontamination materials and since the outbreak occurred in poor, rural areas where the population could not afford to pay for their own treatment or the care that they would receive from the typical hospital. Many of the poor were treated by outside relief workers and the funding to treat people came from multiple countries, but not their own. Because of the low number of people who volunteered, many of the sick were cared for at home by family members who did not have a thorough understanding of how to avoid contaminating themselves in the process, causing a chain reaction of illness and …show more content…

The people feel threatened by the offer of health care and the fact that the government is paying people to participate in these clinical trials is adding to the mistrust.
In order to help the people of Africa, trust must be regained between the people and the government. The people of Africa do not have the same privileges that wealthier countries do. Simple things that we take for granted, like education and emergency health care are not available to the majority of the population. They also do not have regular access to the media, or proper educational information to keep themselves safe from disease. Nor do they have proper access to information regarding the proper hygiene to prevent the spread of disease.
Anthropologically speaking, a global effort must be made to improve the quality of life in Africa and the availability to a proper education regardless of income level. It is important that an effort be made on a global scale to help the more rural areas of Africa develop a better quality of life. By doing this, trust in humanity in general would slowly be

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