The moment when the meaning of the Ebola outbreak in Guinea (Conakry) and here in Liberia hit home to me was when I received a mobile call from the Director of the Kofi Annan Institute for Conflict Transformation, where I have been teaching for the past 15 months, asking me whether, as a Canadian expatriate, I wanted to be evacuated out of Liberia and away from the danger from this dreadful, infectious and untreatable hemorrhagic fever. I did not have to think about his proposal for long. I said no; I would stay here and face the danger with everyone else.

This decision felt right to me. Later I reread the opening of Gaudium et spes: “The joys and the hopes, the grief and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted are the joys and hopes, the grief and anxieties of the followers of Christ….” I asked myself how I could “cut and run” in the face of Ebola when those with whom I live and work at Holy Family Parish in Caldwell and at the University of Liberia  would have to live with Ebola, and the ambient anxiety the virus creates.

Some of the preventive measures were easy for me to practice. I have never eaten bats, which is the vector for the transmission of our strain of Ebola, so giving up that culinary choice was not difficult for me. Even in the time before Ebola I was already an enthusiastic hand washer and carried a small hand sanitizer in my pocket in case soap and water were not available; now I am even more committed to this practice. 

Other decisions were more difficult. For instance, how much should I speak to the crisis in church through my homilies and intercessory prayers? On the one hand, people can easily panic, and harping on the topic might trouble them; on the other hand, we do need the help of God to face our fears and to do what must be done to weather the Ebola outbreak.

In addition to divine assistance we have received timely and generous help from various international partners, particularly the World Health Organization and Médecins sans frontiers, and the epidemic at the moment seems to be contained both in Guinea and here in Liberia.

But a question of justice troubles me. With our strong focus on Ebola and its prevention, what about malaria, which is the real killer in our community? A physician has told me that 80% of the patients who present themselves in his clinic suffer from this parasite. With children with fevers he carefully treats them for malaria first before moving to other medical issues they also might have. What concerns medical professionals like him is the possibility that malaria has reached the patient’s brain; a situation which is often fatal.

The international community is quick to pour resources into containing an Ebola outbreak, but seems less eager to engage in the costly and long term research projects to develop new drugs to treat malaria and to find a malaria vaccine. Given the loss of lives, not to mention the productivity and health security threatened by malaria in Africa and elsewhere, this is surprising.

Thanks to organizations such as the Global Fund, the US military and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation we know that malaria is a concern outside of the global south despite the fact that the female anopheles mosquitos do not trouble people in Europe and North America. Bed nets treated with DDT are widely distributed here in Africa but are sometimes unused since someone under one finds sleeping difficult due to the heat captured inside the net.  DDT is on a short list of chemicals that are banned in the West, and its efficacy is diminished because mosquitos have developed resistance to this useful, but controversial, insecticide.

After a 14 year civil war Liberians are survivors of violence and dangers such as Ebola. But we are in the midst of a crisis.  I remind myself of the Chinese ideogram for “crisis”. First one draws the word “danger”. But a crisis is not simply danger. Superimposed on danger one must draw the word “opportunity”.  My hope is that the Ebola crisis will enable us to find ways and means to deal effectively not only with Ebola but with other serious illnesses as well.