EBOLA HYPOTHESIS; Why Is It That The Ebola Virus Has Emerged in Previously war-Torn Areas
Like Sierra Leone, Ivory coast, Congo, Northern Uganda and Mubende?
· Scientists Need To Investigate The Hypothetical Connection Between
WAR-TORN AREAS And Ebola Virus
· The Ugandan government needs to swing in action and impose a mini-lockdown
on Mubende district.
Ugandan
president Yoweri Museveni is expected to address the country today in reaction
to the recent emergence of the Ebola virus which has already claimed dozens of
lives in parts of Mubende.
The virus
which s considered as one of the deadliest has got no immediate cure but the
medical fraternity is still fumbling with some vaccines which can prevent but are
not certified as yet as the panacea.
The country
is gripped with fear with some parents are rushing to retrieve their children
from boarding schools to prevent them from contracting the virus. Sensitive
citizens have already adopted personal measures to avoid contracting the virus
by avoiding Mubende as a destination.
There are
justified fears that the country might need a mini-lockdown to mitigate its
spread across the country.
THE EBOLA PATHOGEN PATERN
Scientists
claim that the Ebola virus is caused by fruit-eating bats which transmits them
to monkeys and then to human beings. There are various types of Ebola viruses
ranging from the Zaire strain, the Sudan strain and ivory coast strain.
A pathogen
is a disease causing agent. If its weak then the disease can live long enough
to be spread to many people because it cannot kill its victims with immediate
effect.
But if the
pathogen is strong, it cannot last long enough to spread to very many people
because it kills its victims with immediate effect.
What made
the covid-19 pandemic take long to stop was because its pathogen is very weak
to the extent that it can hibernate in the victim’s body for long enough time
to enable him or her spread it to so many other people.
In its own
right the Ebola pathogen is more deadly than that of the corona virus because
its pathogen is so strong that it immediately claims the life of someone who
contracts it and therefore get buried with its victim. The fact that the Ebola pathogen
is strong is actually a blessing in disguise because makes it difficult to
spread expansively because it kills its victim and perishes with it.
Therefore
this means that it can confine itself in one area and kill its victims from
that particular region without spreading so far and wide.
This makes
it a bit containable and less of a threat in that respect.
But the
problem is that it’s very contagious to the extent that any contact with the fluids
of an infected person or even the dead body of the infected person can lead to
immediate infection.
This means
that when someone dies of Ebola, you don’t bother to attend the burial or even
visit the graveyard as it can lead to immediate infection.
The Ugandan Experience
This is not the first time Uganda has been hit
by the Ebola virus. Some few years ago some parts northern Uganda were badly
hit to the extent that we even lost Dr Lukwiya who was directly involved in
treating the patients.
After that
episode Uganda became an authority on the Ebola virus to the extent that
Ugandan doctors were sent to Sierra Leone when it was badly affected.
In the most
recent years, our neighbors on the western borders of the Democratic Republic
of Congo have been the known origin of the Ebola virus having contracted it from
eating monkey meat on the banks of river Zaire.
However, it’s
worth noting that the Congolese are not NECESARILY the only ones who eat monkey
meat. There are monkey meat eating communities in the Amazon forests and some
parts of Asia but have never contracted Ebola.
In fact most
parts of the equatorial forest that stretches to parts of west Africa in
countries like Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea ,
Congo-Brazzaville all have communities that eat monkey meat.
But why is
it that Ebola managed to heavily strike Congo, Sierra Leone and Gulu and now
Mubende?
This
phenomenon has forced me to suggest a hypothetical theory which I want to
advance here to the effect that the virus could be having a connection to areas
that have undergone wars in the past. And as you know, war directly translates
into death of people in big numbers.
For instance
Sierra Leone and Liberia suffered a very bad civil war that claimed millions of
people in the early days of the 21st century.
You also
need to be reminded that parts of northern Uganda, particularly Gulu underwent
a horrible civil war for over twenty years.
While Sierra
Leoneans like Corporal Foday Sankoh were killing people in Freetown, Ugandans
like Joseph Kony were killing people in northern Uganda. At the same time
Ugandan and Rwandan troops exported war to Congo from 1996 up-to-date
When you
check the background history of Mubende district, you will find that it was the
epicenter of the 1981-86 NRM bush war.
Kabamba barracks
which was attacked by Gen Museveni and his group on 6th February
1981 was a big theater of war.
In addition
to that. Mubende district is part of the Bunyoro areas that endured colonial
wars between Omukama kabalega and the Britons at the close of the 19th
century.
Now this
pattern certainly shows that there is a hypothetical connection between war and
the Ebola virus.
It’s safe to
speculate further that just like the remains of dinosaurs and human beings are
connected to fossil fuel that eventually culminate into oil wells, the Ebola
virus might be connected to dead human beings.
Since the medical fraternity has not been able
to discover the vaccines of most of these viruses like Aids, Corona, Zika,
Ebola, etc it means that all theories advanced in regard to those viruses must
not be dismissed without subjecting them to a thorough medical study.
The way forward
The Ugandan
government needs to swing in action and impose a mini-lockdown on Mubende
district.
This means
that restrictions of movement of people from and to those affected areas are
imposed until the situation returns to normal.
But most of all,
Scientists Need To Investigate The Hypothetical Connection Between war-torn
areas And the Ebola Virus
The author Fred Daka
Kamwada is a blogger , journalist and policy analyst ;kamwadafred@gmail.com
