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Kissing the Corpses in Ebola Country
The Daily Beast ^ | 08.13.14 | Abby Haglage

Posted on 08/13/2014 7:50:51 PM PDT by Qiviut

Ebola victims are most infectious right after death—which means that West African burial practices, where families touch the bodies, are spreading the disease like wildfire.

(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ebola; eboladeaths; ebolaoutbreak; ebolavictims
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The heart of the problem:

"It’s a phenomenon O’Sullivan witnessed firsthand in Sierra Leone. “People have no idea how infectious diseases work. They see people go into the hospital sick and come out dead—or never come out at all,” he says. “They think if they can avoid the hospital they can survive.” This mistrust of the medical world seems to be validated when a family is prohibited from honoring the dead, participating in the funeral, or even seeing the body."

1 posted on 08/13/2014 7:50:52 PM PDT by Qiviut
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To: Qiviut

Uh....so maybe they should stop that?


2 posted on 08/13/2014 7:52:37 PM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: Qiviut

Pretty much everything they do in Africa is wrong. And it’s always been that way. Not likely to change any time soon.


3 posted on 08/13/2014 7:53:46 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy ("Harvey Dent, can we trust him?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBsdV--kLoQ)
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To: Still Thinking

Uh....so maybe they should stop that?

*****************************

In a word, YES. Unfortunately for the purpose of stopping Ebola, this goes counter to their culture and they don’t understand the medical aspects of protecting themselves from Ebola. It’s very sad ... not only from the standpoint of people dying, but those still living not being able to grieve the death(s) of loved ones and give them a proper burial, all of which matters a lot to these people.


4 posted on 08/13/2014 7:58:32 PM PDT by Qiviut ( One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides. (W.E. Johns)
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To: Qiviut

The Nigerian president said something like ‘if someone is dead, he is dead, leave him there!’ to address this practice.


5 posted on 08/13/2014 8:00:24 PM PDT by Black Agnes
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To: Qiviut

Yes, that aspect would be very difficult. Not as difficult as dying of Ebola, but still difficult.


6 posted on 08/13/2014 8:04:18 PM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: Black Agnes

The Nigerian president said something like ‘if someone is dead, he is dead, leave him there!’ to address this practice.

******************************

Oh so comforting to the bereaved. Not. Unfortunately, for all concerned, it’s not that simple and so Ebola marches on.


7 posted on 08/13/2014 8:06:04 PM PDT by Qiviut ( One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides. (W.E. Johns)
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To: Qiviut; All

Nobody has a problem with people greiving, or burying the dead, but for God’s sake He gave people a brain, and they need to use it.

Pay respects, but if you kiss Unle NooNoo goodbye and everybody who did that winds up with Ebola and is dying, for God sake don’t be stupid and kiss one of them when THEY die.

It ain’t rocket science...


8 posted on 08/13/2014 8:08:02 PM PDT by Shadowstrike (Be polite, Be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.)
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To: Shadowstrike

It ain’t rocket science...

***************************

...... but it is a more primitive, much less educated culture and that matters in their lack of understanding. Most of these folks don’t ‘get’ viruses or the concept of something being infectious. From the article:

“Telling this to the families of deceased is one thing—making sure they understand is entirely another. In Sierra Leone, a country whose literacy rate in 2013 was just over 35 percent, it’s particularly challenging. In neighboring Guinea and Liberia, two places with similar levels of poverty and illiteracy, education alone isn’t a viable solution either.”


9 posted on 08/13/2014 8:15:04 PM PDT by Qiviut ( One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides. (W.E. Johns)
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To: All

Aids, Ebola.... time to buy a freaking clue.


10 posted on 08/13/2014 8:21:28 PM PDT by bluerose
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To: Qiviut
Most of these folks don’t ‘get’ viruses or the concept of something being infectious.

Oh yeah?

Well then how about "evil spirits" or "bad ju-ju"...do they get that?

11 posted on 08/13/2014 8:27:25 PM PDT by ROCKLOBSTER (Celebrate "Republicans Freed the Slaves" Month.)
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To: ROCKLOBSTER

All my life I’ve heard Africa-this, Africa-that, Feed Africa, help Africa. I’m so sick of africa.

Definition of insanity is:


12 posted on 08/13/2014 8:30:05 PM PDT by bicyclerepair (Barry is but a symptom of the disease that killed this republic. TERM LIMITS ... TERM LIMITS)
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To: Qiviut

So it’s spreading like wildfire. Big frickin’ deal. Another media scare to exploit for news ratings. Hype masquerading as real news. Like everything in the mainstream media it is lies. Worldwide, deaths have been less than 1000 in the latest outbreak. That is less than a fraction of a percent of the world’s population. Some of those deaths are weak people that would have died of something else anyway.

There is more death in Iraq in one day than all of Ebola in its entire history. The only thing we have to fear is fear, and the media specializes in fear. We aren’t afraid of Islam because they say it can’t harm us, and we are Islamophobic if we think it will. But SARS, avian flu, swine flu, hantavirus and Ebola are real threats because they kill a thousand people... in Africa. They need to scare us with Ebola so they won’t have to fill any of their 30 minutes with actual scary stuff like people getting their heads cut off or women being stoned to death or 500 people being buried alive.

I’m frickin tired of hearing about Ebola.


13 posted on 08/13/2014 9:14:01 PM PDT by webheart (We are all pretty much living in a fiction.)
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To: ROCKLOBSTER

Well then how about “evil spirits” or “bad ju-ju”...do they get that?

******************************

Evidently they do, but not in a context that helps stop Ebola .... they believe that “In the event of an improper burial, the deceased person’s spirit (tibo) will cause harm and illness to the family,”


14 posted on 08/13/2014 9:21:41 PM PDT by Qiviut ( One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides. (W.E. Johns)
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To: Qiviut

‘In Sierra Leone, a country whose literacy rate in 2013 was just over 35 percent,.... ‘ Hell, the literacy rate in Detroit is only about 50%.


15 posted on 08/13/2014 9:56:52 PM PDT by Jim from C-Town (The government is rarely benevolent, often malevolent and never benign!)
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To: Jim from C-Town

Hell, the literacy rate in Detroit is only about 50%.

**********************************

I wonder if witch doctors take Obamacare?


16 posted on 08/13/2014 10:03:33 PM PDT by Qiviut ( One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides. (W.E. Johns)
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To: webheart
I’m frickin tired of hearing about Ebola.

************************************

DCOET!!!

(Don't click on Ebola threads)

17 posted on 08/13/2014 10:16:14 PM PDT by Qiviut ( One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides. (W.E. Johns)
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To: Still Thinking

How do you explain to people who don’t know what bacteria or a virus is that something they can’t see will kill them?

Understanding the disease process is relatively new to humanity. Toward the end of the 19th century, there were doctors who didn’t “get” it, and through their ignorance, killed patients left and right by infecting them with whatever previous patients had.


18 posted on 08/13/2014 10:23:49 PM PDT by mountainbunny (Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens ~ J.R.R. Tolkien)
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To: Still Thinking

One word.

Semmelweiss.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_reaction_to_Ignaz_Semmelweis


19 posted on 08/13/2014 10:28:54 PM PDT by Black Agnes
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To: Jim from C-Town

Sorry Jim, you are too high on that Detroit literacy estimate.


20 posted on 08/14/2014 4:26:17 AM PDT by Former Proud Canadian
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