Saturday, September 6, 2014

Vigilantes in Senegal are trying to prevent Ebola from crossing the border. Yahoo/AFP

Vehicles wait at the border of Senegal and Guinea. Yahoo/AFP.

In Senegal vigilantes are volunteering to detain people crossing the border from Guinea in an effort to stop the spread of Ebola. Yahoo/AFP. Dozens of Guineans were detained before deportation thanks to the efforts of government soldiers and a battalion of volunteers. The operations occur after Senegal got its first Ebola patient, a Guinean student, cross the border right before it closed on the 21st of August. In Senegal's capital of Dakar an angry mob attempted to attack the clinic were the student is being treated but were repelled by government forces. 

My Comment:
It's probably already too late, Ebola is in Senegal already. And even with these volunteers people will still probably slip through. Closing the border is the right move and stationing troops there is a good idea for Senegal but I wonder if these volunteer border guards won't do more harm then good. My question is what happens if they find someone that has the disease? If they rough him or her up they could easily spread the virus and even if they don't merely being around an active Ebola patient is dangerous enough. And like I said before, it's there already.  

Expect scenes like this to replay throughout Africa. Possibly the whole world. The outbreak has shown no signs of slowing down and the number of cases is essentially doubling each month. And I've posted multiple times that the true number of sick and dead is vastly underestimated. Right now we are seeing the breakdown of the local governments along with civil unrest and great disruption of trade. West African society seems to be breaking down. They are not capable of responding to this outbreak. 

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