This Map Offers A New Perspective On Ebola Crisis In Africa

According to The Washington Post, around 5,000 West Africans have lost the battle against Ebola. 13,000 are thought to be infected, and a few cases have spread to other countries, including the United States.

This Ebola crisis started in Africa, but British chemist Anthony England wants to remind us that Africa is a very large continent. Most of Africa is Ebola-free, as the map above shows. The virus outbreak is in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone – three countries in West Africa.

The world-wide Ebola scare has created a fear against Africa. In New Jersey, two Rwandan children were sent home from school. Rwanda is an East African country that is Ebola-free. There is more distance between Rwanda and Ebola-infected African countries than New Jersey and Texas.

A Kentucky teacher resigned after heavily criticized for traveling to Kenya, another country far from West Africa. Many tourist trips to places like Zimbabwe and South Africa have been canceled, and like Kenya and Rwanda, they are nowhere near the African countries where Ebola is a problem.

England, who created this map out of frustration, says that Ignorance and misinformation of Ebola in Africa causes fear that leads to “people like Chris Christie implementing nonsensical anti-science quarantine restrictions.”

A lot of people forget that Africa is a huge continent.  The image below shows that Africa is larger than China, India, and the United States put together. England wants others to understand that Ebola is a huge problem in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone  – not all of Africa.

Cases of Ebola have reached the United States, but government officials have reported that with our medical technology, the U.S. is not at risk of an outbreak as seen in the three African countries. To this, England says that the rich world will soon have to realize that it’s absurd to leave a part of the world drowned in poverty with poor infrastructures. “The Ebola outbreak might teach them all that.”