The spread of Ebola has been a controversy in the United States the past few months. Ebola, named after the Ebola River in Zaire, is an infectious and generally fatal disease marked by fever and severe internal bleeding spread through contact with infected body fluids. In 1976 Ebola’s first outbreak contaminated 284 people in Sudan and Zaire with a death rate of 53 percent. A few months after that over 300 more people were infected having a death rate of 88 percent, showing how deadly and rapid this disease can be. Despite the great effort to find this disease through experienced and dedicated research, Ebola’s natural state was never identified. The death rate for this disease has varied from 25-90 percent in the past. To prevent fatal tragedies, we must catch the disease early with specific protocols that will help prevent the disease from spreading and also help people get better. Considering the nature of the Ebola virus, and the medical infrastructure we have to combat its spread, the diagnosis of some cases on American soil shouldn’t be reason to panic. We have a mass amount of tools and public health practices to readily take on its spread. Yet because the virus is so dangerous, and feared, its arrival in America would likely to trigger a vigorous response from our public health establishment. To stop the spread of Ebola, we must spend more money dealing with this case in Africa, and close the borders to travelers from West Africa so that we can save money in the long run. It is not just about saving money. That is the least of our concern. We want Ebola to be terminated so that we can save millions of innocent lives.
First to take full control we must make a better effort to send funds to the highly infected countries in western Africa. The United Nations trust fund for Ebola is around one hundred thousand dollars. This is not nearly enough money to control and contain the disease. The nation believes that to fully control and contain the disease the United Nations needs to fund one billion dollars. This money I believe to be necessary to really deal with this incident, so we can stop the spread before it gets out of control. Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general, had earlier told reporters “that the trust fund, announced in mid-September, had received $20 million in cash. His aides later clarified that the $20 million amount referred to pledges, not cash.” (Ban Ki moon 2014). 20 million dollars sounds nice, however pledges are no guarantee, and 20 million dollars is just a small fraction of what we really need. The United Nations is not the only group to fund money for this virus. Private organizations donated about 350 million dollars to the United Nations, but in reality the money that can be used to fight this disease is very low. This will lead to not enough funds to really help contain the disease. According to New York Times “The number of Ebola cases is expected to exceed 9,000 this week, with a total of 4,500 deaths, the World Health Organization said earlier in the day” (WHO 2014). If funds were raised we could absolutely defend this death rate and easily cut it in half in a short amount of time. The problem is we are not getting these funds, and the virus is spreading like wildfire. “We need urgent global response” ban says. (Ban 2014). The United Nations is also attempting to call for help. They are rallying other countries to donate cash, and any other contributions, from helicopters to protective suits. These donations are going to three heavily effected countries in West Africa. These countries are Guinnea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Talk is cheap and that is what everyone seems to be doing, Leading with talk and not finishing with action. We say we are trying to help, but really are we doing enough? I say no and talking needs to stop and action needs to step up. Some people believe that we should do nothing to stop the disease from spreading in different countries, and let them resolve it on their