Monday Matters #10

     Ebola has become a global crisis and has infected many. It has even reached our own country. Some believe its because of the western aid we gave to help stop the spread of ebola. For example, Shikha Dalmia, a senior policy analyst at Reason Foundation, says that "foreign aid also had a big hand in creating Africa's Ebola problem in the first place." She says that strong leading powers of the world have never been good at successfully identifying similar emergencies because we it is not in their mother land. She says that even global agencies have criticized America and other Western countries for their slow response and allowing ebola to infect 10,000 people. Almost half of those people dying due to ebola. Dalmia is almost calling us unintelligent because she proclaims that ebola is not as contagious as a flu. The only way of catching it would be contact with bodily fluids of those infected. However, its been so sophisticated for us to stop it.
      There is a contrasting view saying that western aid IS essential to prevent another ebola outbreak. James Barty, who is a senior adviser to the Legatume, said "The west must continue to help countries like Sierra Leone to prevent a future outbreak" Western aid helps build an effective health system to countries with low ranks in the health index. This aid will help these countries raise up healthcare spending which will reduce the chance of an epidemic like ebola from happening again. Help from countries that have 2.9 hospital beds per 1,000 people like America, compared to Sierra Leone which has .4 hospital beds per 1,000 people will help keep epidemics like and similar to this from happening again. Help is essential to getting rid of virus epidemics across the world.