Ebola requires a global response

DES MOINES - Agricultural ministers from Liberia and Sierra Leone said Ebola outbreaks in their countries wiped out the economic gains they had attained in post-rebel eras and could spread similar problems to other parts of Africa if the situation isn't stabilized and corrected.

African officials attending the World Food Prize activities Wednesday said what once was considered a 'neglected disease of the forgotten and invisible world” has moved into developed nations like the United States and is beginning to see a collective, global response that offers hope.

'We live in one world, not separate, and we share the risk as well as its potential,” said Kanayo Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, who delivered a keynote address to the World Food Prize assemblage of the importance of investing in rural agriculture around the world.

At an afternoon news conference, Nwanze was joined by Florence Chenoweth, Liberia's minister of agriculture, and Joseph Sam Sesay, ‎ the minister of agriculture, forestry and food security for Sierra Leone, who said their rural areas have been abandoned, crops have been left to rot in the fields and exports have plunged as disease and fear spread through the countryside.

'When Ebola is contained in our country, we will fundamentally be starting all over again including building roads,” said Chenoweth, who noted her country had rebounded from two decades of internal strife and unrest only to see that progress 'wiped out” when Ebola was imported from Guinea.

Likewise, Sesay said his country overcame similar internal struggles only to face a new challenge from an outbreak that spread due in part to burial and cultural traditions that exacerbated a disease transmitted through contact with the blood or other bodily fluids of a person who is sick with the disease and manifesting symptoms.

'This is a very invisible enemy,” he said.

Sesay and Chenoweth were optimistic the outbreaks in their countries will be resolved but their concern is for the aftermath given the economic affects that could provoke instability and a major food crisis in the region without outside assistance to rebuild rural areas devastated by the Ebola outbreak.

'The issue of isolation would not be a solution,” said Sesay. 'The best for me is to fight the war where the war is and not to wait until it comes here. Please, we are appealing to really support us so we can stop this.”

Health officials say the largest problem to date is the ongoing 2014 West African Ebola outbreak, which currently is affecting Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Nigeria with 8,376 suspected cases resulting in the 4,024 reported deaths. The outbreak has traveled to the United States, with one man dying and two health care workers testing positive for the disease in Texas.