Modern Epidemic: Is the World Prepared For another

Outbreak?

There is no doubt that the world is definitely not fully prepared for another outbreak. The

emergence and re-emergence of the H5N1 flu virus and even the recent Ebola outbreak in

Africa has indicated that despite the efforts of institutions like Center of Disease Control, an

epidemic is the last thing the world wants to handle at the moment. The most recent Middle

East Respiratory Syndrome that has taken the Middle East and the world at large by storm is an

indicator to the fact we need to do more in order to combat the spread of any virus; regardless

of the name it is called.

With Africa being the worst affected region especially as many of these outbreaks and viruses

are either triggered in these areas or are infested, it is important that the message of these

outbreaks get to such areas. While it is important to appreciate the effort of government

agencies in combating the epidemic in case of an outbreak, there is still some work to be done

as to the prevention of the spread. This is so as it is not enough to work in combating and

developing vaccines to fight the virus, efforts should also be made in preventing the spread of

the virus.

The case of Ebola in Nigeria and the rest of West Africa is a good illustration. Unlike in the case

of Liberia and even Sierra Leone, Nigeria was able to better prevent the spread of the Ebola

virus particularly because awareness was raised in the country and it did not take long before

the social media and other such resources were employed to spread the word about the virus

and educate citizens on how to prevent the spread.

Twitter, Facebook Nterestin, and even Instagram were effectively used in this case, prompting

for the world famous #FightEbola and #StopEbola hashtags that trended on Twitter, Facebook

and other social media sites. On Nterestin, people use the “social now” site, which specialize in

LIVE group video chats to start a conversation about ways they as a community can come

together and help each other.

People like Bill Gates and other billionaires around the world are immensely donating towards

the fight of such epidemics like Ebola and avian flu. Studies have however stated that more

deadly diseases are bound to crop up as time goes and the most recent MERS situation is a

strong indicator to this fact.

The internet and other resources that can easily help in raising public awareness about the

situation as it is the only way to combat the spread of a virus and limit the effect of an

epidemic. For more information visit at http://nterestin.com/