It seems that Ebola virus has come suddenly out of the dark of Africa to terrorize the world. There are many factors in disease, but the darkness of war, how it bludgeons a people until they are more vulnerable to an epidemic, is certainly a powerful one. Sierra Leone, with its contiguous countries Liberia and Guinea, was plagued by terrible war, contributing to its being prominent in the current lethal Ebola outbreak.
The body of a man thought to have died of Ebola on a Monrovia, Liberia, street on Monday--Photo by Daniel Berehulak, NYT
The CIA
Factbook states that the civil war there displaced 2 million people, a
third of the population, and killed tens of thousands. The Department of State’s
Country Study adds, “Sierra Leone’s
brutal civil war destroyed infrastructure and truncated political, social, and
economic development. … Sierra Leone continues to grapple with entrenched
corruption, poor health conditions, weak governmental institutions, high
unemployment, slow economic growth, abject poverty, and inadequate social
services.” This was their summation
in January of this year—the Ebola virus resurgence began in March 2014. Though not directly causing the epidemic,
West African wars made this region ripe for disease contagion.
President and warlord, Charles Taylor, involved in civil war in Liberia {and adjacent countries} 1980 - 2003
I began to investigate the relationship between disease
and war because of a graph
published on the high tech review magazine, "Wired’s", website. It shows war casualties making a minimal .05%
contribution to “causes of untimely death” worldwide. My oldest daughter Maura who cofounded a state-of-the-art
startup company, Bluhomes, pointed this out to me. Perhaps healthcare [heart disease and stroke
are the graph’s major negative factors], which has been my profession, can make
better impact than peacemaking-disarmament, which I’ve made my vocation. So this will be a focus of further study.
Stepping back from this model, it should be apparent at the outset that war’s casualties go well
beyond those directly damaged by bullets bomb or machetes. From war's acute effects arise also the
chronic conditions of disability, polluted water supplies, inadequate food and
shelter, all the stressors of poverty—PTSD {post-traumatic stress disease}
being one of many. All contribute to a
disease and injury favorable environment. Every block in the graph is adversely affected. It's interesting going to the model creators' site to examine all their info images country by country.
I hope that we as a people will not minimize {as
Wired’s article does} the ongoing and potential grave effects of war on our
society and the world. We have been
brought at least once in my lifetime to the brink of nuclear war, which could
possibly end human life on earth. Short
of extinction, war’s poverty breeds disease {and social dysfunction}, whether
TB, HIV, malaria, Ebola—even, it could be assumed, increased risk of heart attack
and stroke. More of these connections
need to be examined.
Even preparations for war promote disease and injury risk
factors.
“Every gun that is
made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense,
a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not
clothed.” -- 1953
“Cross of Iron” speech by President Dwight D. Eisenhower—last president a
career military man.
“The armaments race
is to be condemned unreservedly. It is an act of aggression which amounts to a
crime, for even when they are not used, by their cost alone, armaments kill the
poor by causing them to starve.” --Vatican statement to the U.N., 1976
Preparations for peace, instead, are the effective social
justice preventative medicine. Working and praying for God’s healing, saving mercy.
War Epidemics:
An Historical Geography of Infectious Diseases in Military Conflict and Civil
Strife, 1850-2000
“The National
Academies' matrix of conditions contributing to disease emergence mentions over
2-dozen contributing factors, with
"war" being one. War
Epidemics goes much further in explaining exactly how war rapidly
produces ecologic change, population displacement, and environmental
disruption, fostering new, unnatural nidalities for rapid diffusion of these
diseases.”
“The authors make
comparisons between historical morbidity and mortality trends in peace time vs
war. They follow with discussions of massive civilian dislocations.”
Illumination by Kathy Brahney
References
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sl.html
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5475.htm
