The hardest hit by the Ebola crisis, as in all crises, are the poorest, whether in cities or remote rural communities. “The epicenters are places where people are disaffected from the health system,” (...) “To them the health system doesn’t even exist or if it does, it’s a run down clinic that doesn’t have enough medicine. We are creating a health system while doing emergency response.”
Even the roads to reach or leave rural communities are lacking, requiring hours by rugged vehicle or trudging for miles. “There are no roads, very little electricity,” Dhillon added. “To even find patients is very difficult, much less transfer them from villages to testing sites.”
An epidemic of fear rages along with the one transmitting Ebola. (...)
“The epidemic here is exceedingly controllable just by doing things we already know how to do,” Dhillon noted. “Until we see a case in Guinea with the same urgency as we see a case in New York, we are not going to be moving with the speed that is needed.” (...)
A health crisis that was ignored for months until it was out of control is now beginning to get the attention required, if not the resources. So far the world’s nations have contributed far less than the $1 billion the U.N. estimates would be needed to control the epidemic before it becomes endemic.
(...) Should the Ebola crisis continue to expand, the host of social and economic problems will grow with it, such as farmers unable to plant fields next spring. “Ebola is not only a health emergency, it’s a poverty crisis,” Bah said. “It’s a poverty crisis. It’s an infrastructure crisis. It’s an education crisis.”