The Politics of Fear

-




MSF has a “quasi-monopoly on the management of Ebola virus epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa.” So wrote Mit Philips, author of one of the essays. Good to know that the organization I work for has experience with this terrifying illness.

Fear was a pervasive factor that slowed the response to this deadly epidemic. The international medical and political communities were slow, the local authorities were slow, the NGO’s were slow. Even MSF was slow. Fear can do that. We are hard-wired to either Fight or Flight. Flight was a common choice. MSF decided to fight. This collection of essays addresses many of the logistical challenges and ethical dilemmas. 

A common heart-wrenching dilemma was how to balance access to care with quality of care. The available infrastructure and staff resources were limited and hard choices were made. Likely many of the survivors and their medical caregivers harbour a conflicting legacy of emotions about the choices. Every situation was unique. No one ever wants to make these choices.

MSF made the unprecedented step to request international military support. Wow, it was that bad! 

MSF made the difficult decision to allow treatment with experimental drugs and concluded that given the extreme mortality, using these drugs made good ethical sense. MSF made intelligent decisions of how to use these medications.

MSF didn’t need to wait long for the next outbreak to challenge their resources. The 2018 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo continues to rage and the politics of fear continue to stymie their efforts.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Beautiful Girls and Boys

-
Beautiful girls and boys. I was surprised. Guess I naively thought the children would all look malnourished and generally unwell. Most of the children I see in the ER are well-nourished and loved infants and toddlers much like at home. They started their life in a good home with good parents and were fed good food and loved. They reached the normal developmental milestones. I have grandchildren the same age who look the same. Then the rainy season started and armies of mosquitoes invaded their homes. A female mosquito bites them during sleep. It takes a few weeks or a month for malaria to develop. They all develop malaria. Just depends on how severe and how often. Malaria is the fourth most common killer of children under five years of age in the world. Malaria in children is more aggressive and more likely to progress to severe malaria with seizures, low blood sugar, severe anemia, and sudden death. I’ve seen a lot of severe malaria in my first week. Fifty pe
Read more

These feet are made for walking

-
Image
Archispirostreptus gigas,  the largest millipede known, grows up to 15 inches and might have as many as 256 legs. These feet are made for walking,  and that's just what they do,  and one of these days these feet are going to walk all over you,  do da do, do da do, do da do,  do da do, do da do, do da do Ok feet,  Start walking. 
Read more

Giant African Snail

-
Image
Achatina achatina, a large air breathing land snail, grows up to 7 inches long and 2.5 inches wide. These snails are on the path I take to reach the MSF truck that takes me to the hospital. 
Read more