HUMAN SECURITY IN PRACTICE: SECURING PEOPLE FROM THE THREAT OF EPIDEMIC — WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE ECOWAS RESPONSE TO EBOLA?

IF 0.3 Q4 POLITICAL SCIENCE Strategic Review for Southern Africa Pub Date : 2020-12-22 DOI:10.35293/SRSA.V37I1.221
Habibu Yaya Bappah
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引用次数: 2

Abstract

1. Introduction A recent case count of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa published by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) put the total number of deaths at 9 194 (CDC, 12 February 2015). Still counting, these figures will not be the last as the people of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone continue to battle the Ebola virus day by day. Until a community or a country spends 42 days (double the 21-day incubation period of the Ebola virus) without a new case and the last patient in isolation becomes laboratory negative, that country or community will not be declared Ebola-free (CDC 2015). Attaining this status has been the goal of many communities affected by Ebola in West Africa today. There are many stakeholders who share this goal and are working to help the communities. The focus of this commentary is, however, on the role played by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in tackling Ebola. The Ebola epidemic is, in the first instance, a regional concern for ECOWAS, affecting three of its member states and threatening the others. Although ECOWAS has played an important role in the fight against Ebola, the narratives of other more resourced stakeholders, such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations (UN) agencies, have largely overshadowed this effort. This commentary therefore, examines the ECOWAS response by answering the following questions: how did ECOWAS respond to the Ebola virus? What lessons can be learned from the response? Using a timeline analysis, it argues that ECOWAS played a leading role in tackling the disease. However, the response of ECOWAS was hampered by its initial approach of over-reliance on the member states and their institutions, most of which lack adequate capacity, to control and contain the virus, and then by the slow process of adapting the response to regional interventionism. 2. Ebola: A threat to human security? More than violence, deadly, communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Ebola threaten humanity in an unprecedented way. On Ebola, the head of WHO, Margaret Chan, said: I have never seen a health event threaten the very survival of societies and governments in already very poor countries, I have never seen an infectious disease contribute so strongly to potential state failure (The BBC, 13 October 2014). This statement underscores the human security implication of deadly diseases, and rightly supports an expanded conceptualisation of security. Ebola not only threatens the lives of the people, but also the survival of the state. Without a healthy, productive population, state survival is imperilled. The Ebola virus disease (EVD), also known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans (WHO 2014). The origin of Ebola virus has been traced to wild animals, which transmits the virus to people, and then unleashes a chain of human-to-human transmission. The fatality rate is as high as 90 per cent in the recent outbreaks (WHO 2014). It has been proven that with early supportive care with rehydration and symptomatic treatment, a victim's chance of survival improves, even though no licensed treatment has been established yet (WHO 2014). EVD is not a new phenomenon. Its history dates back to 1976, when it first appeared simultaneously in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (WHO 2014). The name Ebola came from a river in DRC where the case was recorded. Early detection, control and management are key in fighting the disease. Therefore, community engagement is key to successfully controlling Ebola (WHO 2014). When Ebola broke out in West Africa in December 2013, most of the affected communities did not know what it was, and thus, resorted to superstition. Some people attributed it to a mysterious snake, while others believed it was witchcraft (Estrada 2014). Many of these people then turned to traditional healers for help (Mueller 2014). However, since the information on the virus became available in March 2014, global efforts have been on to tackle it. …
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实践中的人类安全:保护人们免受流行病的威胁——我们能从ECOWAS对埃博拉病毒的反应中学到什么?
1.引言美国疾病控制与预防中心(CDC)最近公布的西非埃博拉疫情病例数显示,死亡总人数为9194人(CDC,2015年2月12日)。随着利比里亚、几内亚和塞拉利昂人民继续日复一日地与埃博拉病毒作斗争,这些数字不会是最后一个。在一个社区或一个国家度过42天(埃博拉病毒21天潜伏期的两倍)没有新病例,并且最后一名隔离患者的实验室检测结果呈阴性之前,该国家或社区将不会被宣布为无埃博拉(美国疾病控制与预防中心,2015年)。实现这一地位一直是西非许多受埃博拉影响社区的目标。许多利益相关者都认同这一目标,并致力于帮助社区。然而,本评论的重点是西非国家经济共同体(西非经共体)在应对埃博拉方面发挥的作用。埃博拉疫情首先是西非经共体关注的地区问题,影响了其三个成员国,并威胁到其他成员国。尽管西非经共体在抗击埃博拉方面发挥了重要作用,但世界卫生组织(世界卫生组织)和联合国机构等资源更充足的利益攸关方的说法在很大程度上掩盖了这一努力。因此,本评论通过回答以下问题来审查西非经共体的反应:西非经共体是如何应对埃博拉病毒的?从回应中可以吸取什么教训?通过时间线分析,它认为西非经共体在应对这种疾病方面发挥了主导作用。然而,西非经共体的应对措施受到了阻碍,因为它最初过度依赖成员国及其机构来控制和遏制病毒,而这些国家大多缺乏足够的能力,然后又因应对措施适应区域干预主义的进程缓慢。2.埃博拉:对人类安全的威胁?艾滋病毒/艾滋病和埃博拉等致命的传染病以前所未有的方式威胁着人类,而不仅仅是暴力。关于埃博拉病毒,世界卫生组织负责人陈冯富珍说:我从未见过健康事件威胁到已经非常贫穷的国家的社会和政府的生存,我从未见过传染病如此强烈地导致潜在的国家失败(英国广播公司,2014年10月13日)。这一声明强调了致命疾病对人类安全的影响,并正确地支持扩大安全概念。埃博拉病毒不仅威胁着人民的生命,也威胁着国家的生存。如果没有健康、多产的人口,国家的生存就会受到威胁。埃博拉病毒病(EVD),也被称为埃博拉出血热,是一种严重的、往往致命的人类疾病(世界卫生组织,2014年)。埃博拉病毒的起源可以追溯到野生动物,它们将病毒传播给人,然后释放出人与人之间的传播链。在最近的疫情中,死亡率高达90%(世界卫生组织,2014年)。事实证明,通过早期支持性护理、补液和症状治疗,即使尚未建立许可治疗,受害者的生存机会也会提高(世界卫生组织,2014年)。EVD并不是一个新现象。它的历史可以追溯到1976年,当时它首次同时出现在苏丹和刚果民主共和国(世界卫生组织,2014年)。埃博拉这个名字来自刚果民主共和国的一条河流,该病例就是在那里记录的。早期发现、控制和管理是对抗这种疾病的关键。因此,社区参与是成功控制埃博拉的关键(世界卫生组织,2014年)。2013年12月西非爆发埃博拉病毒时,大多数受影响的社区都不知道它是什么,因此诉诸迷信。一些人将其归因于一条神秘的蛇,而另一些人则认为这是巫术(Estrada 2014)。这些人中的许多人随后向传统治疗师寻求帮助(Mueller 2014)。然而,自2014年3月获得有关该病毒的信息以来,全球一直在努力应对它…
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