When watching for a potential SHTF event, disease is one of the causes marked “most likely” in my book. We may be seeing the start of exactly this in Africa and Asia as the Ebola outbreak worsens.
According to a report by Doctors Without Borders, the infection in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone is getting progressively worse, and refer to it as “the world’s worst outbreak of the disease.” The Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse has been withdrawing non-essential volunteers from the region due to “instability and ongoing security issues.”
Various leaders are at odds with how to handle the outbreak. Hong Kong announces certain quarantine measures for arriving suspects. The International Civil Aviation Organization is holding talks with global health officials for potential ways to help mitigate further contamination.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has enlisted the help of the COBRA crisis management committee.
“The prime minister does regard it as a very serious threat. We are very much focused on it as a new and emerging threat which we need to deal with.”
EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva believes that more effort is needed if they want the disease to not infect more individuals worldwide.
“The level of contamination on the ground is extremely worrying and we need to scale up our action before many more lives are lost.”
Depending on where you live, this may not seem like any risk. Either way, here are a few practices the UK National Health Services recommend to minimize the chances of catching this and many other diseases.
- wash your hands frequently using soap and water – use alcohol hand rubs when soap isn’t available
- make sure fruit and vegetables are properly washed and peeled before you eat them
- avoid physical contact with anyone who has possible symptoms of an infection
- don’t handle dead animals or their raw meat