Pandemic

The DOH warns that the ebola virus coming to our shores is just a matter of time. We can only hope we are adequately prepared for that.

Two ebola-stricken patients acquired the disease in their own homelands, one in Spain and another in the US. Both are medical workers infected by patients they were treating. The infections happened even if all the protective procedures were observed.

The ebola epidemic has taken the lives of over 4,000 victims in western Africa. Entire villages have been quarantined in a desperate — and so far vain — effort to contain the spread of the deadly virus.

Several governments and multilateral institutions such as the World Bank have begun support for a much greater international effort to combat ebola. In the poor countries of western Africa, the medical systems are simply too inadequate to cope with the epidemic.

Several international medical volunteers have succumbed to the infection. A number of infected persons have fled to the developed economies hoping to be saved by better-endowed medical facilities — such as the one who has since died in Dallas, Texas. The casualty, unfortunately, infected one medical worker treating him.

What makes ebola infection so horrifying is the fact that no antidote to the virus has yet been discovered. There are a few antidotes at the experimental stage, one credited with saving the lives of a doctor and a nurse infected in Africa and brought back to the US.

Until a reliable antidote becomes commercially available, the ebola virus threatens all humanity. There are fears, probably exaggerated, that this virus could mushroom into a global pandemic.

In the modern world, oceans and deserts cannot be barriers to the spread of disease. With the accessibility of air travel, people and the viruses they might carry, can move from one part of the globe to another in a matter of hours. Air travel is the main medium for the spread of disease.

It is not possible to curtail air travel — although some airlines have limited flights to the ebola-stricken countries. Air travel is vital to the global economy.

Since air travel could not be shut down, airports will have to be fitted out as effective frontlines against the spread of an epidemic. We need reassurance that our airports are properly fitted for early detection of possibly infected passengers.

Because we have contract workers deployed all over the world, including Africa, the entry of the virus is of greater likelihood than our distance from Africa might suggest. We have workers coming back from assignments in Africa nearly everyday.

Our own frontline against importation of the disease is the arrival area of the airport. To calm the fears of our people, the authorities must demonstrate that we have a strong frontline, equipped with the best equipment there is.

Our hospitals form the second line of defense. A returning citizen found contaminated by the dreadful virus will need to be isolated. The medical team attending to that potential victim must be trained to deal with contagion. The special equipment for dealing with highly contagious diseases must be on the ready.

The entry of the virus could happen tomorrow. Our medical protocols and the trained personnel should have been ready yesterday.

The enemy might be invisible but fighting it nevertheless requires the comprehensive preparation a war might require. We know we do not have the best medical system in the world. That is all the more reason our first line of defense, the airport, must be most reliable.

Since the airport is administered by the DOTC and not the DOH, there is reason to be anxious.

Deployment

The administration seems to be mulling the possibility of dispatching an army medical team to western Africa to help in the international effort to defeat this virus.

Some might object to this idea because it will expose more Filipinos to the invisible enemy and increase chances of importing the plague. The fear is understandable — but that does not suffice as an excuse not to help.

Reason dictates that the epidemic must be quashed in its own home ground. Allowed to continue spreading in western Africa, the danger to the rest of the world will grow by the day. A pandemic is only a short plane ride away.

If ebola is to be defeated, Africa is the battleground.

The US has deployed a contingent of Army medical personnel to Liberia. They will be at the frontlines, building hospitals in the areas where the virus is most prevalent.

Over the next few days, in the face of calls for international support, several other countries will likely dispatch medical teams. China and Japan will almost certainly participate in this international effort. Cuba committed sending a medical contingent. Thai scientists, according to a recent report, appear very close to developing an antidote to the virus.

There are no ideological boundaries in this war. We all face a common enemy. We will all suffer from a pandemic if this outbreak of the virus is not contained immediately.

It is understandable that the countries worst hit by this epidemic are those with the weakest medical systems. Those medical systems, swamped by the epidemic, require immediate reinforcement. The reinforcement can only come in the form of transportable hospital units and trained medical workers.

We have responsibilities as a member of the community of nations. We must discharge those responsibilities.

This epidemic respects no political boundaries and no nationalities. The response must likewise be transnational.  All of humanity is in this war.