USAID calls for increasing people's understanding of Ebola

On August 26, Director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Jeremy Konyndyk affirmed that the best way to fight Ebola is to instruct people to protect their health because of ignorance as the biggest cause become the prevention of this deadly disease.

According to Mr. Konydyk, Ebola is much more contagious than other infectious diseases but causes more serious consequences once infected. For example, for malaria, the disease is very difficult to prevent because it is mainly transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes when people are sleeping. Meanwhile, Ebola epidemic can prevent by actively avoiding direct contact with secretions from the victim's body.

Medical staff takes care of an Ebola-infected patient.(Source: AFP / VNA)

Therefore, according to Mr. Konydyk, the key to controlling this disease is to help people better understand how to protect themselves and how to prevent infection.

Also related to the current Ebola epidemic, former USAID Director Peter Riot said since the Ebola virus was discovered in 1976, the world has never witnessed any large-scale outbreaks today.

According to the Belgian scientist, the current outbreak of disease is closely related to subjective and objective factors in West African countries in the past 6 months. Among them, the three most important factors are the low quality of medical care (since most countries are destroyed after decades of civil war), people's distrust of the government and the delayed response of international organizations.

Mr. Peter Riot said the Ebola outbreak started in December 2013 but it was not until July this year that international organizations issued a warning, instead of having to give it in March.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), up to now, Ebola has claimed 1,427 lives over a total of more than 2,600 cases, mainly concentrated in 4 West African countries including Guinea, Liberia , Sierra Leone and Nigeria.