U.S. Troops Head To Africa To Fight Ebola

Links:  A. 3,000 U.S. Troops To Deploy To West Africa
            B. U.S. Troops To Africa For Ebola Mission
            C. U.S. Military Quarantined After Ebola Trip

I have been finding reasons to avoid writing this post because I'm not very clear on my own

emotions regarding this mission.  In September, when the Ebola virus was tearing a hole through Liberia and Guinea, President Obama anticipated the need for U.S. assistance and ordered the military to respond (I'm assuming that the military and not the President's staff, developed the deployment agenda).  A plan was created which would eventually call for three thousand troops from the 101st Airborne Division to deploy to locations in West Africa (see Links A and B).  The first group of U.S. military personnel, Army Major General Darryl A. Williams and his staff of ten, just completed a tour of Liberia.  During the tour Major General Williams and his crew observed the screening procedures and medical assistance measures in place in all areas of the country.  Its safe to say that they reached some level of exposure to the virus.  As is explained in link C, they will be isolated and monitored for twenty-one days, which is understandable.

As the first link points out, the military will be tasked with building a 25-bed portable hospital in Liberia.  It is expected that 17 treatment centers will eventually be built in the area.  Along with building facilities to treat patients with Ebola, the U.S. military will train up to 500 health-care workers a week to combat the disease.  My friends in the region tell me that currently "you can't throw a stone without hitting a white person".  I assume that many of the white people in question are Americans, as my cousin in Bamako tells me that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has commandeered the nicest hotel in town.  My close friend, who owns a luxury car business in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, is very impressed with the medical facilities that seem to be popping up all over the country.  Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) is there, and the World Health Organization is too.  The International Red Cross (IRC), which has permanent offices in all the capital cities of the region, has been active from the beginning, and are probably responsible for keeping the number of Ebola cases as low as they are.  In the Spring, with the first confirmed cases, the IRC began sending volunteers out into the rural areas of Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Sierra Leone, and Cote d'Ivoire, to stress the need for sanitation and education.  Most importantly, the IRC took note of the local health facilities and what was needed to set-up screening centers and isolation units.  I am impressed with the response to date of the United States and European health communities.  So far the procedures put in place appear to be working.

I have heard it said that the true reason behind President Obama ordering troops to deploy to Africa is to assist in evacuations and crowd control.  I assume "crowd control" would include "riot control".  Orderly crowds being moved by authorities have a tendency to get out of hand in Africa (my comment is not racist; it is the product of my years of living in Africa).  Actually, orderly crowds can become quite "disorderly" anywhere, not just in Africa.  I believe the initial projections by the experts in Atlanta (CDC) forecast that the outbreak would have spread to Mali and Cote d'Ivoire by now.  Given the impossibility of adequately controlling border crossings (sound familiar?), the CDC probably assumed that infected persons who had not yet begun to show symptoms would be traveling as usual.  Keep in mind that many folks see the borders in African as more of a suggestion than anything else.  The valuable gold and diamond mines in

Diamond Mine in Sierra Lione

Mali, and other countries, traditionally employ workers from bordering states.  I believe that the CDC was correct in assuming that the situation would be much more serious than it is, hence the in-depth planning for mandatory evacuations and (if needed) crowd control.  This is in addition to the fact that some people will not voluntarily leave their homes, and in the instance of a deadly virus like Ebola, they cannot be left behind. The issue is not just the health of the resident; anyone who stays in the contamination zone becomes a potential carrier, who may find a way to rejoin healthy people and start the contagion all over.  At this point I haven't bought into the argument that the troops are really here to control people.  I'm not that cynical.  But then see me again next week.   

Still Stuck In Africa...Let's Talk About Liberia And Ebola (Part II)

Links: Wikipedia Liberia
           The U.S. Has An Obligation To Liberia
           Mea Culpa To Dallas From The Liberian President

(Part II)
The second and third links I have chosen deal with the outbreak of Ebola in Liberia (and Guinea).  To get right to the point, when a serious outbreak of a hemorrhagic virus strikes a poor country where most of the population ingests less than one thousand calories a day  the body count can become shockingly high in a matter of days.  The truth is, this outbreak has not yet "exploded", for lack of a better term.  Perhaps this is because Ebola actually isn't that easy to catch, or because the Liberian and Guinean governments (and international organizations) have responded to the outbreak so

effectively.  The answer is most likely a combination of both factors.  On Oct. 15, The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 4,546 people have died from the Ebola virus with an additional 8,997 confirmed cases.  My source estimates are a bit different: roughly 18,000 cases (although not officially confirmed), mostly in Guinea and Liberia, but also a few in Mali, Sierra Leone, Cote d'Ivoire, and Senegal.  I'm told that efforts to isolate the illness in Guinea and Liberia have been outstanding.  The International Red Cross, the WHO, the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC), and Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) have been working closely together and with the local Ministries of Health to provide isolation equipment, protective clothing, detection equipment, and a variety of other essential medical tools.  Even though the number of new cases appear to have plateaued, and wealthy nations are sending specialists and even troops to the region, many experts are concerned that we are only at the beginning of this outbreak.

Five hundred troops of the U.S. 101st Airborne are headed to West Africa.  The French are

already there, and believe me, when the Elysee Palace in Paris got wind of the U.S. deployment, orders were sent to increase the French presence in what was once part of French West Africa (excluding Liberia and Sierra Leone). I am very familiar with this part of the world, and although independence was granted to Mali, Chad, Niger, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, and Burkina Faso, a Frenchman is never very far away.  France was much more successful than the Brits in keeping relations pleasant with its former colonies.  It probably had something to do with the fact that the French allowed locally-selected political representation for its colonies in the French House of Deputies, and that France spent a fortune (and continues to do so) standing up and supporting the CFA franc as a currency for its former colonies, and get this, folks...the French treasury guarantees the CFA franc!  Can you imagine the Brits using their precious Sterling to guarantee the Kenyan Shilling

or the Nigerian Dollar?  Back at the ranch...I expect to see the French Foreign Legion deployed to Mali and Cote d'Ivoire in its entirety sometime soon, and the British will have to make their military presence known in Sierra Leone.  The U.S. gets Liberia, as it should.  Too many times in the last century and a half, U.S. administrations have refused to get involved in Liberian problems.  What a shame and what a terrible legacy.  This is one of the few occasions in which I will use the word "shame" and the United States in the same sentence.  Liberia was once a child of the U.S., much like Hawaii (which was a separate Kingdom) and Puerto Rico.  I believe that at one time or another we should have intervened and helped to put things in order.  It wouldn't have taken much because Liberia is a country that is rich in natural resources. However, as is frequently the case in many underdeveloped countries, the Liberian people have rarely seen the benefits from any of its national wealth.

Its certainly not too late to make a difference.  Considering that President Reagan's justification for military intervention and temporary occupation of Grenada was accepted, then without a doubt the United States had the bona fides to involve itself in Liberia's various coups and civil wars.  The flag is almost identical to ours, the towns are named Harper, Fishtown and Greenville, and the original settlers, former American slaves, drew up their original Constitution as a mirror of our own.  Why then did we chose to ignore Liberia for so many years?  Because it is in Africa, over there "somewhere", and didn't figure into our strategic national interests.  Fast-forward to 2014, and Liberia doesn't need a strong-arm presence to re-establish order.  Liberia has an honest, determined, brilliant, popular President who has been dealt the shittiest of hands by fate.  As for the French, U.S., and U.K. troops, their presence is intended to help keep order during evacuations, if such need arises.  So far they have not been needed, although the French contingent in Mali may have its hands full fighting a reborn "Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb" flare-up in the north.  My contact in Bamako, Mali is more concerned with the Al-Qaeda threat than she is Ebola.  The French military (and government) normally never hesitate to act where terrorists are concerned, as they demonstrated in Mali in 2012-2013, so I hope this mess doesn't turn into a two-front issue (Ebola in the south, Al-Qaeda Magreb in the north).  As I sit here at my computer, most of the involved parties are eyeing the border areas between Mali and Guinea/Liberia, and Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea/Liberia.  A number of gold mines exist in the border areas, with a number of mine workers coming from the infected countries.  Everyone is sitting on edge, waiting for the first confirmed case in Mali and/or Cote d'Ivoire.  As for the spread of Ebola, I will remain probably the last optimistic person in the U.S.  I expect that the number of cases in Liberia and Guinea will start to decline, so we can put this subject on the back burner, and return to our daily criticism of this administration and how it handles foreign affairs.

The Ebola Virus Disease At Its Source

Link: CDC Information On The Ebola Breakout

You know the old expression, "When it rains, it pours"?  I was unable to locate the origin of the expression, but I'm sure its one of the most popular in the English language.  Throw a dart at a map of Africa, and more than likely you will hit a country that is suffering from some event that justifies the use of "when it rains, it pours".  Liberia and Guinea are two nations located on the Gold Coast

(southwest coast) of Africa.  The name Gold Coast refers to the belief that in colonial times the region was rich in Gold deposits.  Other countries on the Gold Coast include Sierra Leone, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Benin, and Cameroon.  At present, the eyes of the world are focused on this part of Africa because of an outbreak of the Ebola virus in Guinea and Liberia.  Both Guinea and Liberia are attempting to rebuild and recover after decades of civil strife.  At one time or another during the same period, Sierra Leone and Cote d'Ivoire were also engaged in civil wars.  Recently, though, a wave of tremendous hope and optimism had been taking hold in west Africa.  Change was the order of the day, highlighted by serious efforts at reconciliation and fraud-free elections.  Aid was pouring in, and Chinese companies seemed to be everywhere, building dams and roads into the jungle.  Serious discussions were taking place which would hopefully result in the elimination of African debt, and there was talk of education, healing, national soccer teams in the World Cup, and creating a tomorrow that is better than today.

And then Ebola shows up to put a wrench into the works.  The Ebola virus is very contagious and has a mortality rate of 90 percent and higher. This particular outbreak first appeared in a small village in Guinea and has now spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone, choosing a target population that is ill-equipped to fight back. The people in this region are the poorest in the world.  The average daily caloric intake as compared to western nations is miniscule (and, for the western nations, shameful).  The body that is healthy is best able to avoid catching the virus, and the body that is healthy is best able to recover from infection.  Simply put, the people of Guinea and Liberia do not eat enough to stand a chance against this virus.  The governments of Liberia and Guinea, in concert with numerous international health organizations, have done a very respectable job limiting the outbreak to particular provinces.  Given the lack of resources available, this fact is impressive.  The best news for all is that for the most part the international community has reacted swiftly and without fear.  To the physicians, nurses, and other health workers who have traveled to Guinea and Liberia, the struggle is not only to limit and smother the outbreak, but to save the lives of those already affected.  During previous outbreaks, persons who had contracted the virus were frequently left to die.  A determination of infection was a death notice, because no one wanted to treat someone who was carrying such a highly contagious and deadly virus.  I'm relieved to say that my contacts in both countries report that persons who have tested positive are treated with respect and humanity, and every effort is being made to help their bodies fight the virus.

Currently, vaccines are being tested in Mali and Cote d'Ivoire.  There has been serious concern (and a bit of panic) that the virus would spread from Guinea and Liberia into Mali and Cote d'Ivoire; as of 12 October 2014, no cases of Ebola have been confirmed in either country.  The World Health Organization (The United Nations) has been highly visible in Bamako, Mali and in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, as has Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).  The United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) has also made its presence felt.  Finally, the international community is reacting to a health crisis as it should; with resources, manpower and sacrifice.  Earlier today (at Mass, no less), a friend asked me why the international community does not respond to famine and genocide with the same vigor and generosity.  The answer is quite simple.  Famine and genocide are not contagious.  Two million persons at risk from starvation in Eritrea and Ethiopia cannot result in even one case of hunger in the United States.  Warlords slaughtering innocent villagers in Somalia and Sudan does not lead to someone getting shot or stabbed in Copenhagen or Osaka.  In the United States, this current Ebola strain has resulted in the death of one Liberian national in Dallas and the positive infection of a health worker.  The degree of separation gets smaller and smaller, and people realize this.  So smothering this recent outbreak of Ebola at the source makes perfect sense.  The wealthier nations are happy to spend the money, and if locals are cured as well, then all the better.

I'm confident that this particular outbreak of the Ebola virus has reached its peak of infection.  Vaccines have arrived, and people are learning what they must do to avoid contamination. Although 4033 persons have died from this episode, I believe more and more infected persons will recover, as medicine and health care starts to take effect.  West Africa is a hot spot for all sorts of nasty diseases, and I'm optimistic that the current governments in this part of the world will make health education a priority.  The numerous companies involved with mining in Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire and Mali should not suffer too much from the slow down, and hopefully cocoa production will not be affected.  I realize I am being very optimistic, but doesn't it sound more pleasant than the non-stop media cacophony about one person with the flu in Baton Rouge and another person sneezing in Des Moines?  In 1994, Richard Preston wrote a fictional novel called "The Hot Zone", about a hemorrhagic fever outbreak in the United States.  For the longest time, it was all people could talk about.  I'm glad to say that Preston's book remained fictional.  But it did serve as a warning to our various health and disease-related organizations that we had better have a game plan.  I think this Ebola outbreak in West Africa has demonstrated that we do have a plan, both domestically and internationally.  Because we have fifty states and hundreds of international ports-of-entry, mistakes will happen.  But overall, I'm impressed with our response.