This piece isn’t written to scare you into considering what an outbreak of Ebola might mean for Australia. There are no fancy graphs explaining just how quickly and painfully the virus can move through your body before eventually — probably — killing you. It will not inform you about just how the virus is spread between humans and what measures you can take to protect you and your family.
There’s plenty of content already available to either reassure or concern you regarding the chances of you or your family contracting the Ebola virus, depending on which media outlet you choose.
What this article will do is discuss some of the tragic circumstances regarding the humanitarian disaster that is affecting women in Liberia, especially in its capital Monrovia. It will also address why, like every challenge that significantly affects women, women must also be a prominent part of the solution.
In Liberia, the World Health Organisation reports there has been 4665 laboratory-confirmed cases of Ebola, resulting in 2705 deaths. Liberia’s become the ‘epicentre’ of the outbreak, which has so far claimed more than 4912 lives in West Africa.
The WHO data is not split up according to gender. However, during an earlier stage of the outbreak, Liberia’s government reported that 75% of confirmed Ebola cases were female.
This is primarily due to the fact women in Liberia, like in Australia and indeed most places on Earth, are the primary caregivers. It’s women who respond to a sick relative or child. Women who make up the majority of nurses and workers who come into close contact with infectious diseases, such as cleaners, birth attendants and shop keepers. Meanwhile, cultural norms and customs in the area see women and girls often taking responsibility for preparing dead bodies for burial, again putting them at risk. And pregnant women are more at risk of Ebola given they are more likely to have contact with health services.
This incredible video report from the New York Times, which aired on the ABC’s 7:30 last week, follows an ambulance driver as he picks up patients suspected of having Ebola. The report ends with him returning a 17-year-old girl who was violently ill to the doorstep of her home. He had no choice. The hospital was full and the ambulance was turned away. The girl died the next day. While one would like to believe she was comforted and nurtured by family members in the hours before her death, one would also hope any siblings, parents and relatives stayed well away in order to protect themselves. The reality is that if even hospitals are woefully underequipped to help prevent the spread of infection it’s unlikely that such precautions are in place in small family homes. The virus is at its most infectious during its final stages. What would you do? Comfort a loved one and risk infection yourself and likely death, or do whatever possible to protect yourself and therefore others around you?
It’s likely her mother, her sister, an aunt, or other women in her home and community helped care for her in her final hours.
One of the most heartbreaking facts about this current outbreak is that so many lives could be saved — not through treatment but through prevention. Experts agree the virus can be contained with the right resources and education available. And some experts are saying a better gendered response to the outbreak could help save lives – especially in noting the roles women take on in caring for the sick, and as such offering targeted messages about using protective measures.
As Columbia University epidemiology professor Wafaa El-Sadr told Foreign Policy, examining who dies during a disease outbreak can show who has power and who does not. “In a way, it holds a mirror to society. And it shows societies how they treat each other.”
Ebola cannot be contained within the homes of 17-year-old girls infected. It won’t necessarily be prevented from arriving domestically here, nor elsewhere, by Australia taking containment measures such as suspending its immigration program to anyone arriving in Australia from the region.
But a gendered response to the outbreak, especially in involving women at the highest level on how the world responds, could help. UN Women has partnered with Liberia’s Gender and Development Ministry to train representatives across the country to raise awareness on how to prevent the spread of Ebola, which has already seen the take-up of basic preventative precautions across different communities. UN Women Officer-in-Charge Peterson Magoola says it’s a response that considers the different gender dimensions of the crisis, and helps ensure that the needs of girls and women are addressed.
Indeed, UN Women believes it’s “building a major wall of defense for families” in the fight against Ebola.
Women are being affected by the global problem that is the current Ebola outbreak. It’s only common sense that women should be put on the frontline in helping with the solution – that’s not only in family homes or hospitals as carers, but also in leading response teams and programs, as well as being involved at all levels of decision-making in regards to the international response.