|
 Countries should get ready to handle a possible outbreak of the
deadly hemorrhagic fever in case it spreads further as people from
Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea move across borders, Gates said at
a breakfast meeting sponsored by the newspaper Politico and Bank of
America.
“Because of that uncertainty, I am not going to hazard a guess,”
Gates said when asked whether he thinks the massive ramping up of
international aid over the past few weeks is enough.
The World Bank already has started working with countries on
developing plans should the highly infectious disease spread.
The lesson so far is that countries with strong primary healthcare
systems already in place are well positioned to halt the march of
Ebola, as Nigeria and Senegal have demonstrated in their quick
response to cases there, Gates said.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funneled extra money in July
and August towards Nigeria and pledged an additional $50 million on
Sept. 10 to fight the epidemic, which so far has infected over 6,000
people mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
The World Health Organization warns the infection rate probably is
three times that number and could reach 20,000 by November. The
death rate is over 50 percent.
To contain the epidemic, the United States on Sept. 16 announced the
deployment of 3,000 military engineers and medical personnel to
build 17 treatment clinics and train healthcare workers, mostly in
Liberia, at a cost of about $1 billion.
The United Kingdom and France also are increasing their assistance
and the United Nations has stepped forward to coordinate the
international effort.
PRIMARY HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS CRITICAL
The Gates Foundation has deep expertise in fighting infectious
diseases, especially malaria, HIV/Aids, polio and tuberculosis, and
has invested billions of dollars in developing countries over the
past decade. Gates said those efforts have produced tangible
results, such as reducing preventable child deaths by half since
1990 and putting the eradication of polio now within grasp.
A byproduct of these disease-specific investments has been the
development of a skilled cadre of primary healthcare experts, who
can respond quickly to other types of disease outbreaks, he said.
[to top of second column] |
In Nigeria, for example, there is a strong infrastructure of clinics
in place from polio vaccine programs. This enabled the country to
respond quickly and contain the small number of Ebola cases in Lagos
and Port Harcourt that were carried by an infected doctor who
traveled there from Liberia.
Rwanda and Ethiopia also have built up strong primary healthcare
systems, partly in conjunction with targeted aid programs such as
child and maternal healthcare, Gates said.
In contrast, Liberia and Sierra Leone, still recovering from brutal
civil wars that left their healthcare systems underfunded, rely
heavily on clinics and hospitals run by a network of charities and
non-profit groups. Their governments lacked a depth of institutional
expertise in healthcare, Gates said.
“If we had had that, this epidemic would have been caught faster,”
he said.
Building a healthcare structure in the three countries worst hit by
Ebola is critical, otherwise deaths from preventable diseases will
quickly outpace those from Ebola, Gates said.
If mothers are afraid to get professional assistance in delivering
their babies for fear of contracting Ebola and children cannot get
malaria treatments, the long-term impact of the epidemic will be far
more damaging, he said
"That will be very tragic, and it won't get the type of attention
that Ebola is getting," Gates said.
He estimated that it will take 20 years of donor investment in some
African countries to build resilient healthcare systems able to
control preventable diseases and manage health crises.
(Reporting by Stella Dawson; Editing by Lisa Anderson)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
