Political Impact of the Diseases
Ebola
Ebola is a deadly disease that kills not only people, but the country that houses those people. The contagious disease affects the politics in Uganda and Zaire (or DRC), just as much as the victims. In order to control the epidemic the branches of government have to work together to control the epidemic and its spread throughout the cities. Within the branches, there are the officials, agents, and politicians, all of them want progress reports in the advances of medicines, that result in costing the government more money to find a cure to the disease. Through the government, they also have the responsibility to create facilities that the sick can go to, hospitals and first aid volunteers, which reflects heavily on the possibility that any of the workers and volunteers could get the disease. This results in loss of jobs and money in the communities.
Uganda and Zaire suffer from the money loss, mainly because of Ebola, there are no tourists from which the country gets its high revenue, to visit. In Uganda, public transportation is beginning to be banned for risk of spreading the contagion, just like the public gatherings, which are being highly encouraged by officials to be avoided. All interaction within the public is dangerous to the government, for the possibility of spreading. Also, Zaire has banned any transportation out of the country so the disease is not further spread to the world.
Other countries refuse to have any involvement with Uganda and Zaire, so they are left with little trading partners and no help from other governments in their crisis. All of the countries are also afraid, mostly the rivaled ones, that the disease will be spread on purpose throughout their land as a form of killing, revenge, and control. This also relates to the fact that the government has little power anymore to be able to command other countries, which causes the allies to grow thin and the country as well. The power of the government recedes not only to other countries, but its people too. Overall, I think that Ebola has hurt the development of Uganda and Zaire, because their power and money have all been taken with the outbreak of Ebola. It will cause great unrest in the future until the disease has been put under control.
Uganda and Zaire suffer from the money loss, mainly because of Ebola, there are no tourists from which the country gets its high revenue, to visit. In Uganda, public transportation is beginning to be banned for risk of spreading the contagion, just like the public gatherings, which are being highly encouraged by officials to be avoided. All interaction within the public is dangerous to the government, for the possibility of spreading. Also, Zaire has banned any transportation out of the country so the disease is not further spread to the world.
Other countries refuse to have any involvement with Uganda and Zaire, so they are left with little trading partners and no help from other governments in their crisis. All of the countries are also afraid, mostly the rivaled ones, that the disease will be spread on purpose throughout their land as a form of killing, revenge, and control. This also relates to the fact that the government has little power anymore to be able to command other countries, which causes the allies to grow thin and the country as well. The power of the government recedes not only to other countries, but its people too. Overall, I think that Ebola has hurt the development of Uganda and Zaire, because their power and money have all been taken with the outbreak of Ebola. It will cause great unrest in the future until the disease has been put under control.
Yellow Fever
Certain actions against Yellow Fever have affected Africa’s politics quite a bit. One of the biggest steps some African countries took was to require vaccinations and vaccination cards for those who travel to prove that they have been vaccinated. But they are seeing a problem because only some countries are requiring these precautionary steps. Due to these vaccination cards, some people are having trouble. This is because some people’s cards are not found as valid, normally it has something to do with the batch number ( of the vaccine they took) being wrong. Just recently South African Port Health Officials deported 125 Nigerians because they thought their cards were invalid. This turned out to be a bad decision because not long after this incident, the Nigerians chose to deport 48 South Africans because they thought that their vaccination cards were invalid. It was then that Nigeria’s foreign minister said “I find the action [deporting of the Nigerians] totally unfriendly and un-African. They should know that they do not have a monopoly of deporting travelers.”. Through this example you can see how the Yellow Fever has affected the Political world, and specifically affected the relations between Nigeria and South Africa.
Many vaccinations are going to Africa to try to help them get over the Yellow Fever. Organizations such as the World Health organization, Unicef, and Bill and Melinda Gates organization have been giving out a little over 12 million vaccinations for free to African Countries. The only issue with this is that is still costs the Government lots of money to track those who have gotten the vaccine, and provide the man-power to administer the vaccinations to the general public.
Its all fine and dandy that they can get the vaccination but the problem lies in if they want it or not. Africa has quite the anti-vaccine history, branching from deep-set beliefs that vaccines are the “Western plot” to sterilize or infect non-western communities. Unfortunately the more effective and safe the vaccines that we offer become, the more people start to believe that they don’t work, and more people come to be against vaccination, wether it be due to cultural pessimism or them remembering what they thought about the AID’s virus (Some Africans think that it is the American’s fault that the AID’s virus is so out of control.). Another big reason that they don’t believe that the vaccine will work is due to the Government not supporting the vaccine. So far no official statement has been made by the South African Port Health Authorities, supporting the vaccine. If the peoples government doesn’t support the Vaccine that could end up saving lives, why should those people think that it is worth the effort to get? A Government should take a strong stand and take care of their people. We have seen the same trend toward anti-vaccination in the United States. I only hope that the laws we have in place already prevent the confusion/mistrust that is taking place in Africa.
Many vaccinations are going to Africa to try to help them get over the Yellow Fever. Organizations such as the World Health organization, Unicef, and Bill and Melinda Gates organization have been giving out a little over 12 million vaccinations for free to African Countries. The only issue with this is that is still costs the Government lots of money to track those who have gotten the vaccine, and provide the man-power to administer the vaccinations to the general public.
Its all fine and dandy that they can get the vaccination but the problem lies in if they want it or not. Africa has quite the anti-vaccine history, branching from deep-set beliefs that vaccines are the “Western plot” to sterilize or infect non-western communities. Unfortunately the more effective and safe the vaccines that we offer become, the more people start to believe that they don’t work, and more people come to be against vaccination, wether it be due to cultural pessimism or them remembering what they thought about the AID’s virus (Some Africans think that it is the American’s fault that the AID’s virus is so out of control.). Another big reason that they don’t believe that the vaccine will work is due to the Government not supporting the vaccine. So far no official statement has been made by the South African Port Health Authorities, supporting the vaccine. If the peoples government doesn’t support the Vaccine that could end up saving lives, why should those people think that it is worth the effort to get? A Government should take a strong stand and take care of their people. We have seen the same trend toward anti-vaccination in the United States. I only hope that the laws we have in place already prevent the confusion/mistrust that is taking place in Africa.