Borgen Project: Poverty Major Culprit in Spread of Ebola

SEATTLE – Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia are at the epicenter of the Ebola crises. All three are among the poorest countries in the world.

“We’ve ignored the living conditions of the world’s poor,” said Clint Borgen, President of The Borgen Project. “But as we’re seeing with Ebola, ignoring these problems has a way of coming back to haunt us.”

Less than 1 percent of the U.S. Federal Budget goes to foreign assistance. Only a fraction of that goes toward improve living conditions for people in poverty.

Liberia’s infrastructure is so bad that on a typical day, the entire country of Liberia uses less electricity than Dallas Cowboys stadium.

Hospitals were overcrowded before the outbreak and with patients crammed together the disease has spread while people wait for treatment. Hospitals are both the problem and the solution.

When patients arrive at a hospital, it’s difficult for doctors to distinguish Ebola from other illnesses. In one case, a sick child was being treated in a hospital for two days before anyone realized his illness was Ebola. Most public hospitals have closed because they don’t have the ability to safely treat Ebola patients.

The current outbreak is the largest and most complex since the Ebola virus was first discovered in 1976. There have been more cases and deaths in this outbreak than all others combined. The CDC is predicting that Ebola cases may reach 1.4 million by January.

The Borgen Project is a national advocacy organization and the group has called on Congress to make global health a greater priority of U.S. foreign policy.

“Prevention is always more affordable than responding afterwards,” said Clint Borgen. “We could have prevented the Ebola outbreak for a fraction of what we’ll spend trying to contain it and keep it out of the U.S.”