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| First day in World Vision Tanzania Central Zone! |
"Korea is a country?"
I caught a look of surprise on his face. I was also greatly surprised on the first day of WVT Central Zone that some WVT staff assume Korea is part of China.
This is a common misperception about Asia and Africa. There are about 50
countries in Asia, and also more than 50 countries in Africa. There is no single country
that represents this whole continent; however, anywhere I go, people assume
that I am from China. You may already get bored to hear that because I have already talked about it hundreds of time in the blog. People here say that Koreans, Japanese, Chinese,
and Filipino all look the same. Absolutely, it is not true! Their facial
feature, appearance, attire, hairstyle, atmosphere are all different. What
about Africa? I was startled to see that Tanzania is well-developed country; it
is quite the opposite of what I thought about Africa. I might also generalize
Africa that all people in Africa would be black and they all look very similar.
But I realized that Sierra Leoneans and Tanzanians do look different! Of
course, it may take time to have confidence to distinguish; if you bring me one
Sierra Leonean friend and one Tanzanian friend and ask me who is from what
country, I may have hard time to answer it. However, one thing’s for certain:
Tanzanians have not experienced civil war in their history, so it might affect people to have
their own personality; the first word I attentively want to say is peace! I also see their difference of features and expression by
now.
What about Ebola? Ebola news has been throwing the people into a state of terror; mass media aggravates people’s emotion by emphasizing death toll from Ebola. CDC issued highest level 3 Travel Warning to Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone on July 31, because 1320 cases have occurred and more than 725 people have died of Ebola in these three countries. A friend of mine wants to come to Africa, but she is afraid of doing so because of Ebola. I know Ebola is a deadly disease that has no vaccine and no cure, but it is not a widespread epidemic to all African continents. I, myself also still worry about suspicious maximum 21 days of incubation period, the duration from the first exposure to when symptoms appear, because CDC says so. But I want to objectively look at the Ebola epidemic. Something must be in the range of the fallacy of hasty generalization.
“Monitor your health for 21 days. Watch for fever
(temperature of 101°F/38.3°C or higher), chills, muscle aches, severe diarrhea,
vomiting, rash, and other symptoms consistent with Ebola.” - CDC
Does that mean I might be
contagious if I were in incubation period? Since I relocated to Tanzania last
Wednesday, it has been only 6 days since I left Sierra Leone. To find out I am
really free from Ebola, I need to monitor my health 15 more days. Nevertheless,
Ebola is not contagious during its incubation period. Of course, it does not
prove 100% that we can meet random people on the street, because we never know
who are sick. Sick people may not even know they are actually sick, or they
trifle with their cold or cough that would actually be Ebola initial symptoms.
Nonetheless, I wanted to
deliver positive message for today; the power of optimism will contain Ebola
epidemic soon.
<Why You Shouldn’t Freak
Out About Ebola Patients Coming to the U.S.>
“…it can spread from person to person, especially
among health care staff and other people who have close contact with an
infected person.”
What does “close contact” mean?
“…Close contact does not include walking by a
person or briefly sitting across a room from a person.” - CDC
Ebola is not actually touch
& die tomorrow disease; rather, consistent caring and living with patients or
direct contacting with blood/ body fluids of an Ebola patients cause Ebola.
No more hasty generalization!
Africa is actually a good place to live. It is not that scary or hard that some
people worry about. Africa is just one of the continents where people with
different skin live by different cultures. There should be no mysterious,
arcane, or unknown continent of Africa any more. People in Africa are suffering
from hunger and disease, but on the other hand, not everyone is defenselessly
exposed to these risks in Africa. Ebola is definitely scary disease. Cases of Ebola virus in Africa have already been found in many different
countries – Congo, South Sudan, Gabon, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Uganda,
Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Nigeria – since 1976, for 24 times
throughout the history on Earth. It could have been more cases even before 1976
because people might have been died of Ebola, but they did not even know what
that was. The only difference
between Ebola case in the past and now is that the current epidemic is the most serious
and spreads to multiple countries.
We, human beings, will not surrender ourselves to Ebola. Human beings have existed for thousands of years and been always inventive and adaptable. The most important thing to remember is that we have always contained this disease. So, don’t be scared! I visualize the positive future that before long, we will develop the treatment and vaccine for Ebola, and all people happily live in the beautiful continent, called AFRICA!
We, human beings, will not surrender ourselves to Ebola. Human beings have existed for thousands of years and been always inventive and adaptable. The most important thing to remember is that we have always contained this disease. So, don’t be scared! I visualize the positive future that before long, we will develop the treatment and vaccine for Ebola, and all people happily live in the beautiful continent, called AFRICA!
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| Ebola Outbreak in History (1976-2014) - CDC |
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