Outbreak Outrage

Outbreak Outrage

There is a suspicion among African biomedics about the well projected linking of the continent's environment with the emergence of lethal viruses like the evil Ebola Zaire
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NOWADAYS, there is increased fear that the African environment, especially the tropical forests, contains all sorts ofstrange and lethal viruses which are sidelining more knowntropical diseases like malaria. Nothing exemplifies this betterthan the "predicted" emergence of the Ebola, which is a haemorrhagic fever virus which causes uncontrolled bleeding andpainful death by making tiny holes in the Walls of blood vesselsof humans.

The disease emerged in the central African nation of Zaire,famous for its dense tropical forests. However, there are atleast two issues that still worry many African biomedicalexperts and other observers.

As part of the Third World, African nations have alwayssought help from the West in combating diseases, especiallyepidemics. But, most African medical experts insist, the emergence and manner in which the killer virus Ebola was handledraises some uncomfortable questions.

A few months after the publication of a highly sensationalbestseller, The Hot Zone, by Richard Preston, based on pseudo-science and the tendency to easily associate any lethalmicrobe with Africa, the "predicted" killer virus emerged fromZaire on April 10, 1995. Too good to be true, and simply thestuff designed to intoxicate US moviegoers!

However, Africans had to deal with a reality whichincluded painful death and unlimited fear. It coincided withthe movie, Outbreak, based on Preston's book. While non-Africans thronged theatre halls and were experiencing thethrill of this movie, 300-600 people were dying from lethalinfections caused by the highly contagious Ebola. The epidemic, although brought under control, was not without its grim implications.

African epidemiologists and experts did not rule outunderhand deals or mishandling of certain lethal viruses byWestern scientists in Africa. They already openly say that evidence shows that even the AIDS virus was introduced in thecontinent, where Western researchers seem to have had a freehand. Biomedical experts from developed nations still evadeor fail to truthfully answer questions related to their secretglobal missions during the late '60s and '70s to collect virusesand what is being done with such stocks.

In Kenya, local and foreign medics were never able to isolate the lethal Ebola virus which allegedly killed a French national, in January 1980, who had visited Kitum cave in Western Kenya. Tests on bats, rats and rodents that lived inand around the cave revealed nothing even with the help ofbiomedical experts from the Atlanta-based Centre for DiseaseControl.

The fact that local and foreign virologists faded to isolateor detect the source of Ebola in Zaire, has raised many eyebrows. And the fact that Western experts have now rushed toCote d'lvoire to detect the source of Ebola, again raises moreimportant questions.

Although never involved in controversies, several Africanexperts, including virologist F Tukej from Uganda andK Tsepo from Ghana in West Africa, have said that the sourceof Ebola still remains evasive. Many experts, however, whisperthat there is an urgent need for transparency when it comes tothe isolation and storage of lethal microbes because thesegerms are capable of wreaking more havoc on the human population than can possibly be imagined.

Biomedical institutions in the developed world, no doubt,have helped a great deal to curb epidemics in Africa. But it isalso necessary on their part to urgently enlist lethal microbeskept in various laboratories. And microbes can be the easiestthing to smuggle in and out of laboratories and acrossnational borders for several unethical purposes.

The US has never denied repeated claims that it has sentteams of experts to collect all sorts of viruses from across theworld for conducting studies and biomedical research aimedat increasing the humankind's ability to combat new andbizarre diseases. And as most African biomedical experts heavily rely on Western institutional support, few are willing toburn their fingers in controversies that may prove to beunprofitable.

Notwithstanding this, many experts also suspect that thedin about new lethal viruses are immensely profit generating.Such was the case of AIDS, with Luc Montagnier from Franceclashing with US' Roberto Gallo in 1995, over the real discoverer of the virus and related patents right which earned theirinstitutions or governments a hefty US $20 million.

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