Now that ebola is on the ebb in Liberia its a good time to see what have been the important issues, mistakes, avoidables. More important what could have been done or done in a different way so that more money could have been saved and used for causes.
Initial Lethargy: Everyone seems to say that there was an initial lethargy in addressing the problem. At all levels. From the top international bodies to the local people( as we were told in Liberia).Nobody took it seriously and all expected things to get better.
Its easy to say this in retrospective but at that moment in time its difficult to judge the seriousness of the problem.Really?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/17/world-health-organisation-botched-ebola-outbreak
Lets look at some other factors . A country ravaged by civil war for 14 yrs, limited healthcare system, importing food, building bridges and infrastructure is not equipped for anything as serious as ebola.
It is said there were only 40 doctors in entire Liberia.
Though its good that WHO has admitted to their errors an MSF report says we are doing the mistakes again and again....
http://www.msf.org.uk/sites/uk/files/summary_of_findings_of_emergency_response_evaluations_displacement_only.pdf
Governance: The international bodies come into play later. What was Liberia doing ? The story of their ministers fleeing their country and subsequently fired is known to all.
http://www.equaltimes.org/ebola-it-s-governance-stupid?lang=en#.VILoJ9KUeyg
MSF/WHO/RED CROSS : All these are so called humanitarian cause bodies. So what stops them from using HOMEOPATHY ?(oh and everybody knows it works !) For humanitarian causes one should use ALL that can be done.For humanity means for human cause-to save lives. How can we improve things if we DONT take any different steps ? Radical changes are possible with bold and slightly risky actions. Same action ---> same result.
If homeopathy had been employed by MSF/ WHO in its earlier days say Jan -June things would have been different. There was no conflict of interest or business back then. Had that failed there were always other things that we could do anyways. Working parallel with other healthcare would have worked well.! Or it may have failed... whatever but we would have the satisfaction of knowing that WE TRIED.
Incorporation of more different pathies helps. Life and health have become much more complex for any one pathy.
Focus:One can see lots of stress given to data,data and data.But what was the quality of the data. Have we been able to understand who died and who survived. More importantly WHY ? What made the difference ? Before I left for Liberia there was not much data (that I could get-maybe there was...) on the state of health of a Liberian person.Of course there are virulent strains- but there is a whole different way of seeing this. How do people escape death or how does body pick itself up ?It is possible to decide with few questions the status of the body and predict the outcomes. Means its possible to predict fairly accurately if person can survive or not but we need different type of patient data for it.There is no data maintained of this type which can help us better to save lives in the future.With few simple question this data can be obtained and analysed.
Death Of Healthcare Workers: In ebola there is often in some patients what is called projectile vomitting. Means even if a healthcare worker stands away the vomitus of patient can still land on his body. Hence its important for healthcare workers to be careful and always protected. There should have been a healthy rolling of roles in the healthcare system. Means a nurse should be employed only say for 3 wks and then her duty changed in other dept (could check her blood first and then..). The reason being as more days go- one starts becoming bold and less cautious about using all the protective gears. However every new one will be more careful. From whatever details I got most of healthcare workers were working continuously for months with ebola patients.
Failure To Include many countries which could also help in things being done differently.So no serious international movement. I wonder why countries did not respond...
Vaccines: There does not seem to be any other answer to all our health/ epidemic problems other than vaccines. Or we dont want to look or explore other. But the problem is vaccines are very COSTLY and need lots of RESOURCES. Also they really are not solving anything. Measles is back, tuberculosis is back, variants of whopping cough is back. Again there are different strains of ebola-can one vaccine give immunity to all ? Can Africa afford the costs ? Can our body keep responding and yet keep its self intact considering we now have diabetes, blood pressure, cancer as ongoing and genetic ? Do we know about all the effects and results ?
These are all external help to body. Focus on the internal health-immunity of the body.Look at health in long term basis over a period of time.Anti-biotic grand era have come and going-did not work. Vaccines not really working. The solution is the inward journey-get your body to be strong and develop its own resistance.(homeopathy can help). And in acute distress -use sparingly conventional treatment. Integrated approach-future of medicine.
Initial Lethargy: Everyone seems to say that there was an initial lethargy in addressing the problem. At all levels. From the top international bodies to the local people( as we were told in Liberia).Nobody took it seriously and all expected things to get better.
Its easy to say this in retrospective but at that moment in time its difficult to judge the seriousness of the problem.Really?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/17/world-health-organisation-botched-ebola-outbreak
Lets look at some other factors . A country ravaged by civil war for 14 yrs, limited healthcare system, importing food, building bridges and infrastructure is not equipped for anything as serious as ebola.
It is said there were only 40 doctors in entire Liberia.
Though its good that WHO has admitted to their errors an MSF report says we are doing the mistakes again and again....
http://www.msf.org.uk/sites/uk/files/summary_of_findings_of_emergency_response_evaluations_displacement_only.pdf
Governance: The international bodies come into play later. What was Liberia doing ? The story of their ministers fleeing their country and subsequently fired is known to all.
http://www.equaltimes.org/ebola-it-s-governance-stupid?lang=en#.VILoJ9KUeyg
MSF/WHO/RED CROSS : All these are so called humanitarian cause bodies. So what stops them from using HOMEOPATHY ?(oh and everybody knows it works !) For humanitarian causes one should use ALL that can be done.For humanity means for human cause-to save lives. How can we improve things if we DONT take any different steps ? Radical changes are possible with bold and slightly risky actions. Same action ---> same result.
If homeopathy had been employed by MSF/ WHO in its earlier days say Jan -June things would have been different. There was no conflict of interest or business back then. Had that failed there were always other things that we could do anyways. Working parallel with other healthcare would have worked well.! Or it may have failed... whatever but we would have the satisfaction of knowing that WE TRIED.
Incorporation of more different pathies helps. Life and health have become much more complex for any one pathy.
Focus:One can see lots of stress given to data,data and data.But what was the quality of the data. Have we been able to understand who died and who survived. More importantly WHY ? What made the difference ? Before I left for Liberia there was not much data (that I could get-maybe there was...) on the state of health of a Liberian person.Of course there are virulent strains- but there is a whole different way of seeing this. How do people escape death or how does body pick itself up ?It is possible to decide with few questions the status of the body and predict the outcomes. Means its possible to predict fairly accurately if person can survive or not but we need different type of patient data for it.There is no data maintained of this type which can help us better to save lives in the future.With few simple question this data can be obtained and analysed.
Death Of Healthcare Workers: In ebola there is often in some patients what is called projectile vomitting. Means even if a healthcare worker stands away the vomitus of patient can still land on his body. Hence its important for healthcare workers to be careful and always protected. There should have been a healthy rolling of roles in the healthcare system. Means a nurse should be employed only say for 3 wks and then her duty changed in other dept (could check her blood first and then..). The reason being as more days go- one starts becoming bold and less cautious about using all the protective gears. However every new one will be more careful. From whatever details I got most of healthcare workers were working continuously for months with ebola patients.
Failure To Include many countries which could also help in things being done differently.So no serious international movement. I wonder why countries did not respond...
Vaccines: There does not seem to be any other answer to all our health/ epidemic problems other than vaccines. Or we dont want to look or explore other. But the problem is vaccines are very COSTLY and need lots of RESOURCES. Also they really are not solving anything. Measles is back, tuberculosis is back, variants of whopping cough is back. Again there are different strains of ebola-can one vaccine give immunity to all ? Can Africa afford the costs ? Can our body keep responding and yet keep its self intact considering we now have diabetes, blood pressure, cancer as ongoing and genetic ? Do we know about all the effects and results ?
These are all external help to body. Focus on the internal health-immunity of the body.Look at health in long term basis over a period of time.Anti-biotic grand era have come and going-did not work. Vaccines not really working. The solution is the inward journey-get your body to be strong and develop its own resistance.(homeopathy can help). And in acute distress -use sparingly conventional treatment. Integrated approach-future of medicine.
