Ebola was identified 40 years ago in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then called Zaire. Two hundred and eighty people died in this first reported outbreak, out of 318 infected, for a fatality rate of 88 percent.
Despite the fact that Ebola was such a deadly disease, it was generally ignored by the West and their pharmaceutical corporations. There was very little research done to find a cure or an effective intervention.
Why is that? Well, until recently Ebola was limited to remote, isolated and lightly populated areas of Central Africa and most often killed only poor black Africans.
We must understand the ethos of capitalism. Monied people or organizations exist for one purpose and only one purpose . . . to make money. The products or services are not offered to the public to benefit humanity but are seen as the vehicles in which to improve the bottom line.
While cancer and heart disease research is well funded, Ebola is neglected. This makes perfect sense for the capitalist. The market and potential profit from heart and cancer medications is enormous while for Ebola, not so good. Ebola medication would only be needed periodically when there is an outbreak and the clientele would be pretty much limited to poor, black Africans. Where’s the profit in that?
But Thomas Duncan changed all that. He travelled to the U.S. from Liberia, a country that was battling an outbreak of Ebola and wound up in Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas showing symptoms. Eventually, it became clear that he had contracted Ebola while in Liberia and had brought it to the U.S. He was sent home with a prescription for medication despite the fact that he was running a fever. He returned to the hospital a couple of days later because his symptoms had gotten worse. Was he sent home because he was a black man with no health insurance? Now we have hundreds of people who had contact with Mr. Duncan paying the price, including two nurses who helped treat him.
There is currently a great concern about this disease, with the media feeding information every hour on the hour and people asking why isn’t there some treatment for this virulent disease, which endangers all of humanity if it were to spiral out of control?
The failure of the U.S. health care system is evident. U.S. citizens find themselves unprotected from diseases like Ebola because our health care system is in the hands of privateers, people who deal in life and death issues with the bottom line controlling the decision-making process.
Decent health care is a right not a privilege and cannot remain in the hands of these capitalists. Research for drugs and vaccines should be ongoing whenever and wherever there is a need without concern for profit-making.
In response to the Ebola crisis in Western Africa, where over 4,000 have died, Cuba has sent 160 medically trained people to help fight the spread of the disease while the U.S. has sent 4,000 military troops. Someone has to explain why the U.S. responds to every crisis with the military. Are they going to shoot at the virus?
Of course, there may be another agenda. The U.S. already has several thousand Pentagon troops, CIA operatives and State Department operatives in Africa as part of AFRICOM (the U.S. African Command). Establishing a strong military presence may be the real agenda and this crisis provides a wonderful opportunity. But that’s for another article.
Dave Alpert has masters degrees in social work, educational administration, and psychology. He spent his career working with troubled inner city adolescents.
