While the United States seems to have managed to prevent an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus — at least for now — people in West Africa are still suffering. A man traveled from a large Liberian city to the small community of Jene-Wonde in Grand Cape Mount County, bringing with him his sick daughter. Within days the man and his family had died, triggering one of the worst Ebola outbreaks so far. Jene-Wonde is near the border of Sierra Leone and is currently considered to be the epicenter of the deadly disease, according to the Associated Press.
The community is extremely small with absolutely no established health care. That means that the leaders of the area have no idea how to handle the crisis. They realize that surrounding communities are afraid of them, so rather than initially inviting skilled teams in to help with the dead and sanitize the area, they instead tried to hide the outbreak by burying the dead in ways that ultimately helped spread the virus.
Now as many as 10 percent of the community has been infected, and there is a realistic fear that if the Ebola virus is not contained, then everyone will succumb to it.
Local Jene-Wonde leaders are begging for the government to intervene with skilled treatment and professionals that cannot only save lives, but help to prevent the rapidly spreading illness. Liberia has suffered the greatest death toll from the Ebola outbreak to date, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with 2,766 deaths currently being attributed to the virus. That is with aggressive treatment in larger Liberian cities and efforts to safely bury the dead.
Do you think the government is going to hear the pleas from smaller communities like Jene-Wonde and bring them necessary help, according to USA Today, or will it instead continue to focus on the larger cities?
Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.
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