By Dr. Shamsa Hussein Ahmed, Consultant in Infectious Diseases, M.P. Shah Hospital.

A few months ago we were inundated with preventive health messages about Ebola and you couldn’t turn on the TV without some discussion about it. Some panicked and some prepared and some said it is what it is, if COVID didn’t kill me would Ebola really get me? And we did this with Mpox a few times, and a couple of newspaper articles on super gonorrhoea and flesh eating bacteria and whatever else possibly a slow news cycle and health blog needed to share before the Strait of Hormuz became a bigger story.

What is happening with Ebola right now?

With more than 7200 confirmed cases with 3745 confirmed deaths this outbreak of Ebola has yet to go away with the Democratic Republic of Congo bearing the brunt of it. No confirmed cases in Kenya.

The response challenges to this outbreak unfortunately mirror the same challenges in previous outbreaks ranging from limited health infrastructure, including limited access to healthcare, diagnostic and laboratory services, infection prevention and control systems and basic PPE, Ongoing conflict creates security issues and complicates contact tracing, Frequent population movement and cross-border travel increase the risk of spread, Lack of trust in the government and international health organisations allows for misinformation and lack of communication about Ebola and the one that hurts my heart the most is Violence against healthcare workers.

What is even sadder is the list I just described could literally be copy pasted for almost all infectious diseases in our continent.

For me the bigger question for us here in Kenya is how much self responsibility comes into play with health? We take public health for granted when it works well and we have forgotten diseases exist through vaccination and public health campaigns. We query the prescribed antibiotics but welcome the untested peptides.

But is panic valid in this day and age? especially in populations with access to good reliable sources of information. If you are aware of a celebrity’s hobbies should the same energy be available for world health and personal health matters?

Are healthcare workers allowed to panic? I’ll leave that one unanswered for now.

We are still a low risk country for Ebola.. but high risk for TB, HIV and Hepatitis B. It’s almost a personal insult to see a wellness package that doesn’t include tests for HIV and Hepatitis B.

Wash your hands, eat healthy, exercise, stop smoking, get vaccinated, get tested… till the next news cycle.