This list of symptoms has become familiar to many Americans as West Africa’s Ebola outbreak has been making headlines for months.
A educational forum from noon to 1:30 p.m. Monday in the Whittenberger auditorium aimed to explain some of the public health concerns and social changes associated with the outbreak.
The event was moderated by Michael Reece, associate dean of the School of Public Health, and featured four panelists.
Josh Mugele, assistant professor of clinical emergency medicine at the IU School of Medicine, said Ebola is a simple virus with five known strains.
The mortality rate is typically 90 percent, but the current strain, the Zaire strain, has a mortality rate of approximately 60 percent and falling, Mugele said.
No one knows the original source of Ebola.
Some theories speculate the virus may originate in monkeys or perhaps bats, Mugele said.
“Most people who catch this, if they die, they die within seven to 10 days,” he said.
Mugele said Ebola is not an easy virus to catch because it requires significant contact with bodily fluids to spread.
“There’s a lot of hype about it,” he said. “There’s a lot of hysteria about it because it is so deadly, but it’s actually a fairly simple virus, and we can protect ourselves against it like we do against any other virus.”
Charles Reafsnyder, retired associate vice president for international affairs, said Liberia’s history of unrest made it particularly vulnerable to the Ebola outbreak that has killed thousands across the country.
Liberia’s 14-year civil war ended in 2003 and, until the outbreak, the country was on the mend, he said.
In 2007, IU awarded an honorary doctorate to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and Reafsnyder said this marked a commitment on IU’s part to helping Liberia heal.
“We are an engaged university internationally, and this is part of our engagement,” he said.
Chad Priest, assistant dean in the IU School of Nursing, said the outbreak has had major social consequences for Liberia.
“It cannot be stated enough the fragile state of Liberia as a post-conflict nation,” he said.
He said Liberia is experiencing the beginnings of a severe food shortage.
When he left Liberia in July, he said the Ministry of Health in Liberia was discussing how to feed people placed in home quarantine.
Traders fearing Ebola are less likely to go to market, Priest said.
The resulting food shortage in turn makes the Liberian people weaker and less capable of fighting the Ebola virus.
Ruth Stone, professor of folklore and ethnomusicology, pointed out that the Ebola virus outbreak has interrupted some of the Liberians’ most important ?traditions.
She said funeral traditions are among the most important in Liberia.
“Funerals are the most important life cycle event in Liberia, and for that matter, in the diaspora, where many Liberians live here in the United States,” she said.
A Liberian funeral involves a washing of the body, which is not possible with Ebola victims as the bodies are very contagious, she said.
They also involve a gathering of the community in both a funeral and a wake, and people in churches sing spirituals and there is ritualistic wailing, she said.
“I’ve observed these,” she said. “I’ve gone to them for many years, and now we have a situation where what is a multi-sensory, multi-channel event can’t take place.”
Stone said she suggests that musicians be hired to accompany the burial teams.
While the tactile element of the Liberian funeral cannot be restored, she said she would like to see the sonic element return.
Priest and Mugele were at JFK Medical Center in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, in June during the start of the outbreak.
“One of the most important things we did when we were there was enforce good hand washing,” Mugele said.
Mugele said there was a shortage of both gloves and soap in the hospital.
While Priest and Mugele were at JFK, the hospital faced its first case of Ebola.
A man came in with flu-like symptoms and was in the hospital for six hours before anyone realized he might have Ebola virus, Mugele said.
With infectious diseases such as cholera and tuberculosis being endemic to West Africa, Mugele said it was easy to miss the case.
The patient died shortly thereafter, as did two of the three doctors who treated him, Mugele said.
Mugele said Liberia had an extreme shortage of both personnel and supplies.
“My hospital that I work in has more doctors and more nurses than the entire country of Liberia,” he said.
Priest said people in the United States shouldn’t be afraid of contracting Ebola.
He added that to prevent global outbreaks, the U.S. has to be willing to commit to fighting epidemics at their source.
“This is public health,” moderator Michael Reece said.
He said public health needs such as infrastructure and supplies do not vary by country but are the same worldwide.
He said IU should continue to work toward improved global public health infrastructure.
“These all start with just a couple of cases,” he said.
Priest said the public should take a deep breath and relax when it comes to concerns about Ebola in the U.S.
“There is a near certainty that you could contract the flu this year,” he said.
Liberia’s public health system is drastically impaired after years of conflict, while the system in the U.S. is strong, Mugele said.
“Their generators go out daily,” he said. “Their water supplies go down. Their buildings are not well air-conditioned.”
Reece said the crisis in Liberia has brought public health to the forefront of the global mentality.
The School of Public Health is offering five free online courses about the basics of public health, which can be accessed at publichealthandyou.indiana.edu , Reece said.
Reece said the courses are currently being culturally adapted for Liberia and will be made available to Liberians in March.
“What this has reminded us of is that public health is an essential cornerstone of a civil society,” he said.
