Like so many Americans these days, I am deeply concerned with the spread of Ebola. I have been following the stories of efforts to control the disease in Africa as well as the stories of patient's right here in the US. I have listened to pundits, doctors, politicians, social commentators, social activists and news anchors push each of their views. My conclusion, we will not get a handle on Ebola until we stop the politicizing of the issue.
We should not really be surprised, in this day and age we politicize everything. And not just politicize, we blame anyone who can take the spotlight off the real issue. The Democrats are blaming the Republics for the Ebola spread and I am sure Republics somewhere are blaming Democrats. Jesse Jackson Sr. is involved claiming sub-standard care for Mr. Duncan who recently died in Dallas. Some nursing advocates are blaming the hospitals and the CDC for a lack of training. Some are even blaming the CIA and white demon worshipers for spreading Ebola . All of this confuses the issue and makes getting the epidemic under control harder.
As the director of a medical museum I am confronted daily with the history of past mistakes and successes in dealing with public health issues. To be successful, we need to rely on the medical professionals, scientific research community and government authorities to do their jobs. This is very hard in the current political environment and harder still in a 24 hour news cycle.
The Civil War gives us some insight into doing this the right way. If we think that we politicize today, we are slackers compared to our ancestors from the 1860's. Yet, they too were going through a massive public health crisis as they went through the war. More soldiers died of Typhoid Fever and Diarrhea than bullets. Many thousands more were overcome by venereal diseases. These diseases not only attacked soldiers, but in the aftermath of battle they also attacked local civilian populations with disastrous consequences. Yet, despite the outcry and ridicule of the military medical establishment by the press and politicos, science succeeded.
During the Civil War, sanitation in the camps dramatically improved thanks to both military officials and organizations like the US Sanitary Commission seriously improving general health and cutting deaths from disease. Army officials began public health efforts to license prostitutes in Nashville and create medical examinations and special venereal hospitals in order to cut the spread of STD's with very good results. Dr. M. Goldsmith used blind studies to bring gangrene under control in Union hospitals with dramatic results. Dr. Jonathan Letterman developed a system of emergency medicine and ambulance based evacuation that is the basis for emergency medicine today. These and many other innovations came out of medical system in crisis that overcame the crisis to save countless lives and began a tradition of military medical excellence that continues to this day.
For those attacking our nation for sending military medical professionals into Africa, I must disagree. Our military is equipped to fight this battle. Ebola and other diseases have been on the radar of the military for years. They have the labs, the equipment and the training to treat and slow the spread of the disease. They have over 150 years of success in fighting major diseases. From the Civil War struggles with Typhoid, Smallpox and Dysentery, and the Yellow Fever work done by Dr. Walter Reed to the current work by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, our military medical professionals have proven themselves again and again. In fact, they may be the most qualified responders in the world today.
I realize that I am likely a voice crying out in the wilderness, but, we need to keep informed, ignore the hype and filter what we hear in the television and radio very carefully. We cannot allow ourselves to be sucked into the panic that our politicos, activists and news media would wish. They have an agenda - get ratings and votes. We have a much more important agenda - stay alive. In order for us to do that, we need to let science and medicine lead the way.
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