埃博拉疫情充分暴露資本主義弊病

　　貪婪、瘋狂的資本主義的方方面面都在此次西非疫情中凸顯。

　　理論上，埃博拉并非很難控制的傳染病，因為它不過是通過直接接觸病源(感染的動物或人)體液而傳播，而且這種病毒不易在空氣中存活，足以被肥皂或熱水殺死。只要根據病毒的上述特征加以防護，完全可以控制疾病的傳播。關鍵是要有足夠的醫護人員!

　　但此次疫情是1976年發現埃博拉病毒以來最嚴重的。而且還傳播到了6000英里外的美國，居然還感染了2個護士，真匪夷所思!對資本主義社會來說，神馬疫情控制，他們更關心限制國際旅行會觸動他們的利潤。

　　美國的人均醫療投入是$8900/年，而非洲疫源利比里亞只有$65/年;美國GDP的18%用于醫療，雖然英國只用9.4%，但各項指標都比美國好，包括人均壽命(編者注：英國醫療體系不是市場化的！)。那么這么多錢都哪兒去了?至少30%去喂那些貪得無厭的保險公司了!

　　醫護人員流向哪里？

　　非洲疫區極其缺乏人力、物力資源，有的醫院只有4個醫護人員，塞拉利昂只有不到100名醫生服務于公共領域，護士缺口60%;全利比里亞只有51名醫生!這點人如何落實從預防到治療的各項措施?

　　在非洲醫護人員如此稀缺的背景下，據傳，英美醫療系統還在招募他們來為自己服務，主要通過養老院進入護理勞務市場。

　　學習古巴好榜樣

　　看看把所有人的健康放在首位的古巴所能創造的成就吧：它的新生兒死亡率低于美國，而且消耗的資源只有美國的1/20。更令人欽佩的是他們對發展中國家的無私幫助，為非洲派去4000多名醫護人員(其中2,269人是醫生)。與此同時，很多獵頭公司還在挖非洲的醫療人力資源到歐美醫院服務…（進步青年網編譯）

　　原文： Ebola: capitalist health exposed

　　http://www.cpbml.org.uk/news/ebola-capitalist-health-exposed

　　Just about every aspect of the insanity of capitalismis exposed by the current outbreak of Ebola virus centred on west Africa.

　　In principle, it should not be too difficult to control Ebola. But that’s not what has happened. The outbreak is now the worst on record – by some distance – and cases have also cropped up in the US.

　　It’s nearly 6,000 miles from Liberia to Dallas, Texas, the route travelled by Thomas Eric Duncan when he brought Ebola infection to the US. And it should be a world away in terms of healthcare. After all, the US spends about $8,900 per capita on health each year; Liberia around $65.

　　And it’s not as if Ebola is a particularly difficult disease to contain. Yes, it is highly contagious, but it does not transmit well through the air, and it degrades so rapidly under heat that washing your hands with soap and hot water is sufficient to kill it.

　　‘ALL CAPITALISM IS WORRIED ABOUT IS WHETHER RESTRICTIONS ON INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL MIGHT DENT PROFITS.’

　　Yet the two American nurses who treated Duncan at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital have both contracted Ebola. It seems as if some elementary disease control precautions were not implemented.

　　That’s par for the course for a country that devotes high sums to healthcare, but where so little of it goes towards treating people and ensuring proper prevention. And let’s face it, there’s no money for capitalism in Ebola management. All capitalism is worried about is whether restrictions on international travel might dent profits.

　　Despite spending 17.9 per cent of its GDP on healthcare (against 9.4 per cent by Britain), the US – according to the World Bank – ranks lower than Britain on almost every major health indicator, including life expectancy.

　　The NHS is generally acknowledged (except by politicians here) to be incredibly efficient and effective. Unlike the US, we don’t divert 30 per cent of healthcare funding to administration – amazingly, up from less than 25 per cent 20 years ago – primarily feeding the hungry mouths of insurance companies.

　　Importing staff

　　But like the US we rely on overseas labour to staff our health services, rather than training sufficient numbers of our own staff.

　　That’s not to denigrate the skill or bravery of health professionals from Britain who have gone to West Africa. But once there, they are finding such dire shortages of staff that teaching prevention has been a hard task.

　　One infection control expert from Camden, recently returned from a month-long stint in Sierra Leone, reported just four clinicians at the hospital in Kenema. Said Rebecca Stretch, “Staff were in short supply which made things difficult. For example, you couldn’t ‘buddy up’ as there was too much to do. ‘Buddying up’ is one of the best ways to help prevent the spread of infection as you have somebody to spot the risks whilst you work.”

　　King’s College London, which has a health partnership with Sierra Leone, says there are fewer than a hundred doctors practising in the public sector, and reports vacancy rates there of over 60 per cent for nurses. In 2010, the World Health Organization reported that there were only 51 doctors in the whole of Liberia.

　　Against that background, the continuing employment of African doctors in the British and US health systems is a scandal, and one that few people want to talk about. There has been some progress since the middle of the last decade, when just over half of all new applications to go on the nursing register were from abroad. And many people from abroad are using jobs in nursing homes as a back door into the British nursing market.

　　Cuba

　　To see what can really be achieved by a country that treats the health of all as a priority, look at Cuba. Not only is its infant mortality rate lower than that of the US, its solidarity with developing countries means that in September there were more than 4,000 Cuban health workers serving in Africa, 2,269 of them doctors.

　　While Cubans are supporting the workforce in Africa, too many recruiting agencies are still depleting the African health workforce to staff hospitals in Britain, Europe and the US.

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