{"id":1253,"date":"2014-10-13T17:03:01","date_gmt":"2014-10-13T17:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/?p=1253"},"modified":"2014-10-13T17:03:01","modified_gmt":"2014-10-13T17:03:01","slug":"the-most-devastating-thing-about-ebola-in-9-heartbreaking-sentences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/2014\/10\/13\/the-most-devastating-thing-about-ebola-in-9-heartbreaking-sentences\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Devastating Thing About Ebola, In 9 Heartbreaking Sentences"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ebola3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ben Hale was quoted in a Business Insider Australia article<\/a> on the Ebola epidemic.<\/p>\n

The Most Devastating Thing About Ebola, In 9 Heartbreaking Sentences
\n<\/strong>Business Insider Australia<\/em>
\n<\/a>October 11, 2014
\nby Lauren F. Friedman<\/p>\n

Among all the grim statistics coming out of the Ebola crisis in West Africa, this one might be especially grim. According to UNICEF, the virus has left more than 3,700 children without one or both parents.<\/p>\n

NPR talked to Anne Purfield and Michelle Dynes, Centres for Disease Control and Prevention epidemiologists who recently returned from Sierra Leone. They shared a story that cuts to the core of Ebola\u2019s devastation \u2014 the disease\u2019s perverse ability to twist our humanity into a liability:<\/p>\n

One day, an Ebola-infected mother brought her baby into a hospital, Purfield recalls. The mother died, and the baby was left in a box.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey tested the baby, and the baby was negative,\u201d says Purfield. \u201cBut I think the symptoms in babies and the disease progression in babies is different than adults.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the nurses would pick up and cuddle the baby. And they were taking care of the baby in the box,\u201d she continues.<\/p>\n

Twelve of those nurses subsequently contracted Ebola, Purfield says. Only one survived.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey couldn\u2019t just watch a baby sitting alone in a box,\u201d Dynes says.<\/p>\n

People observing the crisis from a distance often express bewilderment at how the disease \u2014 spread by bodily fluids \u2014 has infected so many, so quickly. Surely, some suggest, it must be airborne.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not \u2014 it doesn\u2019t have to be.<\/p>\n

With so much of its spread to caregivers and healthcare workers, \u201cthe mechanism Ebola exploits is far more insidious,\u201d as Benjamin Hale wrote in Slate. \u201cThis virus preys on care and love, piggybacking on the deepest, most distinctively human virtues.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why it strikes children, their parents, whole families, and whole communities. All it takes is one small slip up, one uncalculated act of humanity, and the disease spreads even further.<\/p>\n

As of Friday, the Ebola outbreak has infected an estimated 8,399 people and killed 4,033. UNICEF is training Ebola survivors, now immune, to care for quarantined children, whose numbers continue to rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no evidence,\u201d the World Health Organisation noted recently, \u201cthat the [Ebola] epidemic in West Africa is being brought under control.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ben Hale was quoted in a Business Insider Australia article on the Ebola epidemic. The Most Devastating Thing About Ebola, In 9 Heartbreaking Sentences Business Insider Australia October 11, 2014 by Lauren F. Friedman Among all the grim statistics coming … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-03 07:04:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1255,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253\/revisions\/1255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}