Ebola Essay

"If your friend who doesn't have medical knowledge asked you about The Ebola Outbreak, how would you explain it to them?" 

Friends, I wish to share with you a story:

“I woke up in the morning, looking for my mother, wanting a pacifying warm hug, for I had a nightmare yesternight about an unknown, realising that she’s no longer there…

Just 2 weeks ago, she fell very sick; she became extremely exhausted never like this before.  Her body was very hot and she was in great pain! I cared for her like what she did when I was sick last time.

I remembered there was mystery men in horrifying white costume came to my house and brought my mother away to the hospital. They told us that she might have got “Ebola Viral Disease”. I think I’ve heard of it, many of my neighbours were brought away by the same white car with a bright red cross, but most of them never came back… I have seen a dying man abandoned by his family at the road side. I am so afraid!

Deadly, Killer Disease, Bleeding, Painful, No Cure, No Vaccine, Highly Infectious, Filovirus, Uncontrolled Outbreak... These big words are more than what a 10 year-old boy can handle. I pray to God that this is not real; there mustn’t be any disease…

Last week, my mother passed away. I was in grief. I couldn’t get closer and caress my mother for the last time during her funeral, like what I did for my grandmother few years back. Contact can spread the disease, they said. Will air, water and food do the same to me? Is it true that by simply washing my hands the deadly disease can be prevented? I was confused!

Again, the nurse came into my cubicle and replaced a new bag of fluid that hung on icy cold metal stand beside my bed. I can’t see her face, it was tightly covered, but I bet it was fill with fear, as most of them who seen me. I heard they said something about me; I am a positive case of Ebola Viral Disease.

Deadly, Killer Disease, Bleeding, Painful, No Cure, No Vaccine, Highly Infectious, Filovirus, Uncontrolled Outbreak... My mind was blank, and these words kept bugging me. I was lost and did not know if tomorrow’s bright sun and the future still belonged to me. I felt dizzy, my vision gone blurred and gradually everything became dull and black out.

If only Ebola remained known as the motherly river that flows peacefully, nurturing her children at the northern land of Democratic Republic of Congo... I prayed. ”

I hope that silent prayers of West Africa can be heard by my friends, knowing that Ebola Outbreak is not “just another wave of infectious disease” per se, rather it triggers our consideration on how harmonious humankind advancement can be attained in midst of intense conflict between human and pathogen. Everyone in this world has the responsibility to take dynamic and radical action for ensuring a sustainable tomorrow, for we are dealing in the same biosphere, our motherly Earth.We can hardly short of any accessible, comprehensive description of a disease but the motivation that drives us there.