Aggies raise money for Ebola
More than 80 Utah State University students and community members gathered in the Taggart Student Center ballroom Monday night to raise funds to help children and families in West Africa effected by the Ebola virus.
The UNICEF Spotlight Banquet, hosted by the UNICEF USU Campus Initiative, featured speakers, food and a performance and dance lesson courtesy of the USU African Dance class.
UNICEF estimates that as of mid-October, 3,700 children have been orphaned because of the Ebola virus, which has killed 4,950 people. Children are often orphaned when extended family members are afraid to take in children whose parents were infected for fear of bringing the virus to their homes. The funds raised Monday night will help provide personal protective equipment, like gloves, so families care for infected family members without spreading the virus.
“There are children that are forgotten,” said Jorgan Madsen, a senior majoring in biology and founder of the UNICEF USU Campus Initiative. “My prayer tonight is that doesn’t happen; that one person in this room will change their heart and realize that you can make a difference in (a) child’s life.”
As of early November, 4,950 have died from the Ebola virus and there have been 13,241 documented cases worldwide, making it the largest Ebola outbreak that experts are aware of, according to Craig Day of the Institute for Antiviral Research at USU.
Day presented research about the virus and information about the treatment effort, emphasizing that the virus can only be contracted through contact with blood or body secretions of those in the later stages of infection or handling infected bats, chimpanzees, gorillas or forest antelope.
“Really, there’s no need for alarm or overreaction,” Day said. “It’s contained right now.”
According to Day, the first outbreak of the Ebola virus occurred in 1976. Named after a river in Congo, Ebola is an RNA virus, like measles, rabies and influenza. Day said the virus is unique in its structure and is enveloped, meaning each virus particle is wrapped in a layer of lipid.
“That’s important because it makes it really easy to kill,” Day said. “That fatty layer can be dissolved with alcohol…This is a pretty wimpy virus. If we just disinfect normally, we can get rid of it.”
Although those living in the U.S. are at little risk of contracting the virus, Dr. Bert K. Lopansri, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Epidemiology at Intermountain Medical Center, emphasized why it is important that the community is accurately aware of what can be done to stop the spread in West Africa.
Lopansri said media outlets tend to invoke fear and feed hysteria, blacklisting the healthcare workers doing valiant work overseas.
“They’re coming back and getting stigmatized,” he said. “They should not be. They should be honored because they’re actually doing some important work to try to bring this outbreak to an end.”
Lopansri said it is crucial that funds be donated to remedy the shortage of food, water and healthcare workers in effected countries.
“We need to fund every effort there is to help overseas,” he said.
Arie French, a freshman majoring in religious studies and history and member of the UNICEF USU Campus Initiative, described how it feels to raise money for the needed materials.
“Maybe it’s across the world and you don’t really see it happening, but you know you’re helping change their lives for the better,” he said.
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