The Ebola Crisis

Dear members of the RC Community,

I asked Anne Greenwald, who works as a school nurse, and Steve Bromer, who is the Information Coordinator for Physicians, to think about, discharge about, and discuss the situation involving Ebola. Given the seriousness of that illness, our distresses, the media’s tendency to restimulate rather than inform, and the very social nature of RC, I wanted their best thoughts about the situation and what might be required in the future because of it. Here’s what they came up with.*

With love and appreciation,
Tim Jackins

Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) is transmitted from human to human through direct contact with the body fluids of the infected person (blood, sweat, saliva, feces, urine, tears, semen, breast milk, vomit). Ebola does not move through the air from person to person (is not airborne). Current thinking is that people with Ebola are only contagious once they develop symptoms, such as a fever, vomiting, diarrhea, or bleeding.

Ebola is currently spreading in several countries in West Africa—mainly Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia. Global capitalism and racism are responsible for this. These countries have suffered from deforestation, drought, food scarcity, a population shift to large cities (due to life in rural areas becoming increasingly difficult), and health-care systems that lack sufficient resources.

The Ebola virus is contagious and is causing serious outbreaks, but we do have enough knowledge to control its spread. The recent outbreak is occurring because of a lack of resources and insufficient health-care infrastructure, not because the virus is too difficult to control. It could have been prevented with a more rational and resourced response to the first cases.

The incubation period of Ebola seems to be from two to twenty-one days. And infected people are contagious for a relatively short period of time—perhaps on the order of weeks—as they don’t carry enough of the virus to easily spread it until they have significant symptoms. For these reasons, it is possible, as has happened in Nigeria, to control the infection.

There have now been a few documented cases of Ebola in countries outside the areas of the current outbreak. However, the risk of contracting Ebola in places other than where the outbreak is currently occurring is extremely low. This situation could change quickly if bigger efforts are not made to stop the disease in the most affected countries.

The most effective way to control the outbreak is to provide treatment in settings with adequate medical supplies. This includes making sure caregivers and health-care workers have access to personal protective equipment. Support, training, and monitoring of health-care workers and others responding to the outbreak also play an essential role in ending the cycle of infection.

A number of governmental and non-governmental organizations have started to direct needed support to the affected countries. Progress is being made in controlling the outbreak, but many more resources are needed to support a rational response to it.

WHAT WE CAN DO IN RC

We all need to think and discharge about our environment. This includes the environment we create at workshops and other RC gatherings. How can we be most thoughtful toward each other? How can we create an environment that keeps us healthy?

We are often physically close to each other at RC workshops and other RC gatherings, which is a tremendous contradiction to isolation for many of us. We can continue to contradict isolation and have physical closeness without compromising our health. This will require being open and trusting each other, and looking at and discharging hurts that have made us afraid to reveal certain things about our health. Most of us have recordings of humiliation about our bodies and how they function. We need to look at how we were treated when we had an illness and how we witnessed other people being treated.

Distresses can cause people to overreact or underreact to life-threatening epidemics. Co-Counselors should learn about Ebola and discharge about epidemics. Here are some questions to consider:

  • What do I know about Ebola? How can I learn about it? (Try reading about it in a Co-Counseling session.)
  • What was my experience related to plagues or epidemics as a young person?
  • What would be a rational policy for preventing the spread of illness in RC settings?
  • What confusions prevent me from thinking well about my body and my health?
  • How does this issue tie into my early hurts?

If someone is infected with Ebola, he or she should not attend classes or workshops, or have in-person sessions, as this would create a significant risk of transmitting the virus; there are no precautions that would make the situation safe. If Co-Counselors have had contact with an infected person, they should also not do in-person sessions or attend classes or workshops, until at least three weeks after their last contact.

As the situation evolves with Ebola, we will need to keep thinking about what makes sense in each RC setting. This will serve us well as other health-related issues emerge on the planet and as we move RC into all parts of the world.

Anne Greenwald
Brookline, Massachusetts, USA
Steve Bromer
San Francisco, California, USA
Reprinted from the e-mail discussion list for RC Community members


* "Came up with" means thought of.


Last modified: 2022-12-25 10:17:04+00