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| Gambian dictator |
Spain is now the first known transmission of the virus outside West Africa. The patients in the United States have all contracted the disease while working in Liberia.
As more resources are being put in place in Liberia and Sierra Leone by the United States Defense Department, including an additional $1 billion, Guinea-Bissau which shares borders with Guinea and The Gambia that shares borders with Guinea-Bissau are proving to be two of the weakest links in the Ebola chain.
Guinea-Bissau and The Gambia represent two countries that have suffered from corrupt and incompetent military regimes that have weak health systems. In the case of The Gambia, the current regime inherited one of the best Primary Health Care System that has been left to deteriorate due to negligence, in favor of a secondary care system.
The regime favored policies that built hospitals for its propaganda value that are all ill-equipped without the basic medication necessary to simple illnesses associated with environmental cleanliness like treat malaria, diarrhea and basic illnesses that ordinary Gambians face daily.
The current health system that exist in the Gambia is both inadequate and inappropriate to fight any outbreak. There is also no indication of national preparedness, including public sensitization, is at a reassuring level.
While neighboring countries are busy sensitizing their citizenry, the regime in Banjul is busy organizing celebrations as if the threat to public health is not real.
To further expose the vulnerability of the population, the Medical Research Council (MRC), a world class medical research that engages in valuable field trials and were scheduled to take part in the Ebola vaccine trials, is being threatened with expulsion by the Gambian dictator.
What a deliberate and invidious timing that can only expose an unsuspecting citizenry to the dangers of a rapidly deteriorating public health emergency.
