The World Looks Away as Ebola Surges

As Ebola appears to once again be in resurgence, international interest in the epidemic is dropping.

Article By: TeleSUR

Ebola is spreading again, but the world isn’t interested
As international interest in Ebola wanes, the virus has again spiked in West Africa, according to figures released by the World Health Organization (WHO) Wednesday. In the final week of January, rates of new infections rose for the 1st time in 2015 in all 3 West African nations worst hit by Ebola. “There were 124 new confirmed cases reported in the week to 1 February: 39 in Guinea, 5 in Liberia, & 80 in Sierra Leone,” the WHO said in its latest situation report on the disease.

A total of 22,495 people have been infected by the disease since the worst outbreak on record began in late 2013. The WHO’s latest figures put the death toll at 8,981. At least half the people who are hospitalized w/the strain of Ebola ravaging West Africa won’t survive the disease, according to the latest fatality rate estimates. The uptick in new cases came after weeks of optimism that the outbreak was slowly receding. In mid-January, the WHO declared the fight against Ebola had reached a “turning point” after infection rates plummeted across Liberia, Guinea & Sierra Leone. However, Dr. Christopher Dye, the director of strategy in the office of the director general of WHO, conceded at the time there was “no basis for complacency” in fighting Ebola bc there was always the risk of a resurgence of the virus.

Similar sentiments were expressed by David Nabarro, the U.N. system coordinator for Ebola just days earlier. “We have a very attractive & promising situation that leads us to believe that perhaps we are beginning to see the end of the outbreak…Unfortunately it’s not quite as simple & the reason for that is any case of Ebola in the region can restart an outbreak very quickly,” he said in January.

Ebola Not Hot
As Ebola appears to once again be in resurgence, international interest in the epidemic is dropping. According to Google search data, U.S. interest in Ebola has been in a dramatic decline since late October 2014. Interest spiked shortly after news broke that a doctor had tested positive for the disease in New York. “I think largely the human impulse is to say we’re worried bc it could reach our shores,” assistant professor in epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health Dana March told CBS. “The attention has really diverted away from the epidemic; people aren’t seeing it as a threat in the U.S. anymore.”

Meanwhile, the Washington Post compared Google searches on Ebola w/measles. Interest in the latter disease surpassed Ebola somewhere in mid January. “Measles, hot. Ebola, not,” the Post’s Philip Bump concluded. However, decreasing interest isn’t limited to the United States. Worldwide search data from Google shows a similar, gradual decrease in Ebola related searches over the past 3 months. It’s also not just Google users that don’t see Ebola as a priority.

Earlier this week, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) released new research suggesting less than half of international donations earmarked for the battle against Ebola reached affected countries. According to the study, around US$2.9 billion was pledged to fight Ebola in 2014, but only US$1.9 billion arrived by the year’s end in the West African nations struggling w/the disease. “These delays … may have contributed to the spreading of the virus,” explained Karen Grepin, the head researcher behind the grim new study. Testing of a new drug that could help victims is also being put on hold, according to an announcement from Doctors Without Borders on Wednesday. According to the agency, there simply “aren’t enough sick people” for the study to continue.

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