Ebola Warfare And The Conspiracy Theories

Behind the unprecedented Ebola outbreak in some West African nations lays a species with an incredible power to overwhelmingly capture and subdue its host. The ever virulent Zaire ebolavirus and the family of filoviruses to which it belongs own their virulence to mechanisms that first disarms the host's immune system and then destroy the vascular system rendering the body completely inert until it succumbs to death.

This Ebola strain is the most virulent among other virus in human history which is capable of wiping the human race. It's now a global emergency, a serious public health problem that no nation can ignore no matter how remote it may be from the rest of the world. The Ebola outbreak has shattered the health care delivery systems in the affected countries. WHO and its partner agencies appear to have being caught flat footed and off- guide.

The slow and lackadaisical respond of the international community to this outbreak coupled with the controversies surrounding the origins, spread and cure of the virus has not only invoked fear among people, it has inadvertently raised suspicions and speculations among some people who think there might be something far beyond what we are being made to believe about this Ebola out break.

Should we be worried about these Ebola conspiracy theories which have flooded the ever powerful social media and internet in the face of this eminent humanitarian crises or we should treat them as a normal phenomena in outbreaks just like how the SARS, HIV, H1N1, anthrax etc conspiracy theories were treated?

Unfortunately, most of this conspiracy theories fuel widespread misconceptions, resistance, denial and sometimes strong hostilities that hamper the humanitarian responds to the outbreaks. Conspiracy theories about Ebola are spreading faster than the virus itself. With no known cure and vaccine couple with some sort of history about its handlers, its potential origin vary widely from it being a CIA –manufactured bioweapon being tested on human populations to its being a “cannibalistic ritual'' plot.

In April this year, the threat of violence forced Medecins Sans Frontieres an aid organization to evacuate its entire staff from treatment centers in Guinea. There have also being reports of angry crowds who accused foreigners of bringing the Ebola virus into their country. Notably in Sierra Leon recently, thousands of people protested outside the country main Ebola center in the eastern town of Kenema fueled by rumors that the Ebola disease is a decoy operation used to justify cannibalistic rituals being carried out in the treatment center.

One Dr Leonard Horowitz who claims to be an international expert on public health education says he has conducted a major and a milestone research into the origins of HIV and Ebola , he questions claims that these viruses emerged from apes and then jumped to humans. Rather, in his book titled Emerging viruses, he looked at the possibility these viruses were laboratory creations which are accidentally or intentionally transmitted through cover-up vaccinations programs by the CIA and its allied groups. American RnB super star, Chris Brown who though is well known for his stage craft and jail escapades than a public health expert recently waded into the conspiracy theories. He took to twitter to inform his numerous twitter followers that Ebola is a kind of population control plot. Our own Archbishop Duncan Williams thinks Ebola is a demonic spiritual plague that has marked out Ghana as its next stop. Another revered Archbishop, Palma- Buckle, an Accra catholic metropolitan Archbishop did not hesitate by the horror sight of the Ebola devastation to take a whip at the west for experimenting Ebola virus in Africa. To make matters worse, Liberian born US professor of plant pathology, Dr Cyril Broderick Stirred controversy in his native home country when he published an article in one of the country newspapers that this Ebola outbreak is a US bioterrorism experiment. His article has fueled speculations and it has become an internet sensation ever since.

These conspiracy theories drumbeat is heard lauder and appears scarier when it comes from people who carry some legitimacy and influence.

But as Africans who are the biggest victims of most outbreaks, should we just shrug off these theories and continue with our normal lives or we should interrogate and investigate such claims no matter how weird and bizarre they may appear for sake of posterity? Should we not be worried about the series of events this Ebola outbreak has brought out?

So if this US aid workers did not contract the Ebola, we won't have known there is an experimental serum available which now proofs to work better in white skinned Ebola patients than blacks? Pentagon scientists have being developing this vaccines and sera for about 30 years now. I have tried several times not to get carried away myself from some of these fancy cynical Ebola conspiracy theories, but then when I look back at history and the blatant power struggle among these world super powers, am tempted not to completely shrug off some of these theories.

Throughout this last century the US Government and its allied agencies have build a notorious track record for delving into the darkest and the most sinister realm in its pathological, cutting edge pursuit of amassing the most powerful destructive arsenal on earth. From tortuous mind control methods to unlawful deceptive drug experimentation and DNA sampling on innocent civilians. Not forgetting their bleak black ops throughout the world. The roles of us public health service and the CDC in the infamous 40 years Tuskegee syphilis experiment is well documented. The us government has also being implicated for secretly infecting Guatemalans in 1940 with syphilis just so that they can experiment with penicillin.

This ultra-covert, highly unethical and illegal practice of customarily misusing science, mostly at top universities with unlimited funds to harness brilliant yet twisted scientists to unleash Nazi Dr Mengele type experiment on innocent people is nothing new.

African leaders should not just brush aside some of this theories. Nothing happens by chance. Let's not forget how long it took the soviet union to deny the accidental anthrax exposure from their biological weapon laboratory that claimed more than 100 civilians lives in the town of Sverdlovsk in 1979 .

The US department of defense and the CDC classify Ebola virus as bio warfare agent. Meaning,

Ebola is a perfect biological weapon: it spreads very fast and gives an almost 100 percent mortality within a very short period of exposure. Therefore, it's a very real and extremely potent potential weapon of mass destruction.

ADUA FRANCIS
NEW CRYSTAL HOSPITAL
[email protected]