September 16, 2019
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World Health Organization 

Ebola

Myanmar

Anna Devarenne

 

At the peak of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone were among the most affected. Because of these countries’ status as developing countries, the government was not able to contain the virus and it rapidly spread. The only vaccine developed is extremely expensive and not yet approved for clinical use, so the most commonly used methods to prevent the easily-transmittable spread is containment and isolation. This devastating disease can desecrate not only a developing nation’s health and population, but also their economy–the outbreak has led to a depreciating currency, cut of infrastructure products, and rapidly decreasing GDP. 

 

Myanmar is an impoverished nation and has a poorly funded and poorly equipped health care system. In many regions, there is also a strong fear of the government, which can result in difficulty to contain the disease if there happened to be an outbreak and inability to close ports to prevent transmission. Contact tracing followed by isolation and treatment of symptoms, but these require specialized qualified professionals, which Myanmar lacks. If there are any suspected cases of Ebola in Myanmar, blood samples from the patient are taken and sent to a World Health Organization-recognized laboratory for testing. Myanmar has had a few encounters with possibly infected travelers–mainly in years around 2014– and has handled it as they should–with containment and testing–and these efforts of preparation with an emphasis on national health resulted in Myanmar having no outbreak of Ebola, despite being a developing country. 

 

In order to uphold Myanmar’s current state of safety from the Ebola virus, Myanmar proposes that the United Nations continue their works and funding in the nation to improve the health care system and disease awareness; this will not only help to prevent any possible outbreaks of Ebola in the nation but also to improve the health of the nation as a whole. Myanmar commends the United Nations Ebola Emergency Response sect of the World Health Organization for its work across mainly West Africa to control and prevent the Ebola outbreak and emplores the organization to continue with these works. Myanmar also requests that the United Nations find a way to decrease the price of the current vaccine and increase funding in attempts to approve it for clinical use.  

  • Anna Devarenne

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