Ebola- Culture, the real issue

w734q672
w734q672 Posts: 578 Member
in Chit-Chat
"The culture of the places that are infected is perpetuating the Ebola epidemic. All the planes, troops, and paper money that we throw into African nations won't fundamentally change the way African communities live their lives, which involves eating bush meat- the origin of the disease as proposed by scientists. The global community may be able to convince a small segment of the urban elite/ upper middleclass of African nations not to eat bushmeat, because they don't want bushmeat- they want McDonalds. However, you're not going to convince the average tribal farmers/villagers/peasants to simply change their diet. In fact, it would be morally reprehensible to try to convince them not too, because it a standard protein source in their diet. Understandably, most of these people in these infected areas are starving. If I'm starving to death, do you think I give a f- if the bat that I just ate might be sick, especially when I probably don't think viruses exist and illnesses comes from demonic possession? Of course not, I'm going to eat that bat, and I'm going to eat that chimpanzee because it looks tasty too."

I think you need to change the culture if you're going to solve this problem. What do you guys think?
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Replies

  • mikeshockley
    mikeshockley Posts: 684 Member
    I like cake.
  • SonicDeathMonkey80
    SonicDeathMonkey80 Posts: 4,489 Member
    Or you could just eat at a calorie deficit
  • sunglasses_and_ocean_waves
    sunglasses_and_ocean_waves Posts: 2,757 Member
    who are you quoting? tl;dr
  • w734q672
    w734q672 Posts: 578 Member
    oh, just one of my friends being hilarious. There's truth to it even if it is politically incorrect.
  • w734q672
    w734q672 Posts: 578 Member
    SonicDeathMonkey80 wrote: »
    Or you could just eat at a calorie deficit

    What? I took that as "you want them to starve to death" lol
  • dbanks80
    dbanks80 Posts: 3,685 Member
    mikeshockley wrote: »
    I like cake.

    I like WINE

  • TheRoadDog
    TheRoadDog Posts: 11,793 Member
    I don't want to try and change their culture. I just want to stop Ebola infected people from travelling outside their village. Let's bring back Leper Colonies.
  • TossaBeanBag
    TossaBeanBag Posts: 458 Member
    TheRoadDog wrote: »
    I don't want to try and change their culture. I just want to stop Ebola infected people from travelling outside their village. Let's bring back Leper Colonies.

    KFC would work better than sending troops.
  • wamydia
    wamydia Posts: 259 Member
    I think that although the natives eating bush meat may be the origin of an outbreak of Ebola (which is actually quite rare), it has nothing to do with the disease's spread in the population once it has broken out. It's a lack of education about the disease, medical resources for the infected, and personal protective equipment for caregivers that allows it so spread so quickly and easily in places like Africa. The cultural component that contributes to the spread is more about burial rituals -- it's common to touch and hold the dead before burial which is a great opportunity to pick up Ebola from someone who just died of it.

    I think that throwing money and personnel at it can make an impact on educating the natives on how the disease is contracted, protecting caregivers from getting the disease themselves and then spreading it around, monitoring people who are leaving the country and possibly taking the disease somewhere else, and providing care for people who may be able to survive the infection. Convincing people to eat McDonald's won't impact any of that.
  • hookilau
    hookilau Posts: 3,134 Member
    mmmm....wine...cake....kfc
  • Alluminati
    Alluminati Posts: 6,208 Member
    god I hate facebook
  • trinatrina1984
    trinatrina1984 Posts: 1,018 Member
    TL;DR I have no idea what's going on but feel that this is appropriate

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  • trinatrina1984
    trinatrina1984 Posts: 1,018 Member
    Just crossing my fingers that the post wasn't a long heart felt obit. :/
  • Monkey_Business
    Monkey_Business Posts: 1,800 Member
    Here is the problem as I see it and TheRoadDog may have the answer. EVD or EHD is a species jumping virus. It is spread from the bush meat sources to domestic animals (specifically pigs and dogs). Stopping the use of bush meat is not going to stop the spread EVD. The EVD (which is 4 out of 5 Ebola viruses that spread to humans) have a mortality rate of between 25%-90% with an average of 50%. That is a huge by average mortality rates! So the recourse may end up being placing travel restrictions on the countries have known active cases of EVD/EHD. You are not going to change a countries primary protein source easily. As a side note, the soldiers we are sending over are support roles only (communications and construction, they NOT expected to have contact with patients or even the locals. They are being deployed in extremely low numbers. They being briefed on protection and will have observers) Just one ole man's opinion........ Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_virus_disease
  • 50sFit
    50sFit Posts: 712 Member
    edited October 2014
    Yea, whatever...
    Until actual Americans start dying, what to have for lunch is much more important.
    swl6gso4uhjw.png
  • Falcon
    Falcon Posts: 853 Member
    Now villagers are burying their dead before the burying team can arrive. They are going door to door in attempts to educate everyone about the virus. There are still a lot of natives who believe it doesn't exist, and it's thinking like this is allowing it to spread like wild fire. As soon as they wise up and realize how to stop Ebola, the sooner they can get this under control.
  • w734q672
    w734q672 Posts: 578 Member
    Falcon wrote: »
    Now villagers are burying their dead before the burying team can arrive. They are going door to door in attempts to educate everyone about the virus. There are still a lot of natives who believe it doesn't exist, and it's thinking like this is allowing it to spread like wild fire. As soon as they wise up and realize how to stop Ebola, the sooner they can get this under control.

    This is a perfect example showing how the culture in these infected region is making the problem ten times worse. Healthcare workers are trying to change their cultural ways, but are encountering extreme prejudice. Some of these healthcare workers have been murdered by locals who have blamed foreigners for the rampant local deaths.

    I think that Ebola is totally controllable. However, I am not convinced that those living in the infected regions are willing to change their habits that ultimately help spread Ebola. The world might be able send the necessary aid to these infected regions, but it's counterproductive if these people living in these infected regions don't change their cultural habits, which includes personally burying their dead and worshipping them holding hands.


    Just to show how locals in these infected regions feel about the subject
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XasTcDsDfMg



  • w734q672
    w734q672 Posts: 578 Member
    50sFit wrote: »
    Yea, whatever...
    Until actual Americans start dying, what to have for lunch is much more important.
    swl6gso4uhjw.png

    Multiple people in the US have been infected. There has been 1 death so far.
  • Falcon
    Falcon Posts: 853 Member
    A doc just came back earlier in the week, developed symptoms Tuesday night and still went bowling on Wednesday. No telling if he infected anyone. He went to the hospital earlier this morning. Yeah our healthcare workers can't get quarnatine right, and this doc should know better considering he was caring for others with Ebola in Africa. It's people's mind set like this is what gets the rest of the country into trouble.
  • w734q672
    w734q672 Posts: 578 Member
    Well that sucks. Why aren't healthcare workers who are sent back to the US screened for the virus?

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