Increasing worldwide access to life
saving vaccines by engaging in research on diseases that predominantly affect
developing countries, via the UN Development Programme, created in 1966 when
the General Assembly approved the merger of the Technical Assistance Board and
the UN Special Fund (Resolution 2029 (XXI) (and by the activities of the World
Health Organization (WHO)).
By: James G. Apple,
President of the International Judicial Academy and Editor-in-Chief, International Judicial Monitor
(In celebration of the 100th anniversary of
the founding of the American Society of International Law in 2006, the Society
published a pamphlet titled International
Law: One Hundred Ways It Shapes Our Lives. The Introduction gives
an explanation for its conception: an affirmation that “international law not
only exists, but also penetrates much more deeply and broadly into everyday
life than the people it affects may generally appreciate.” This column seeks to
elucidate and elaborate on many of the 100 ways briefly presented in the ASIL
pamphlet.)
The rise of infections from the Ebola virus in three west
African countries in the summer of 2014 and the subsequent increased
consciousness of the dangers of this deadly virus, especially when cases of
Ebola infection appeared outside Africa, in Spain and the United States as a
result of international travel of infected persons, has focused attention on
the need for a vaccine and the intervention of national and international
health organizations. Much attention has been paid to the efforts of the Center
for Disease Control in the United States in isolating those who have arrived in
the U.S. from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. There have been 13,241 reported
cases in the three countries as of November 7, 1014.
The issue of Ebola as a major threatening virus for humans
had been raised to a limited degree in the early 1990s when Richard Preston’s
book The Hot Zone appeared in bookstores and libraries in the U.S.. That
book, which reached New York Times best seller status in 1993, outline
the particular nature of the virus and the characteristics of the disease that
it causes, and how it impacted health organizations in the U.S. and other
countries.
The virus, at that time, had not reached the status of a
probable cause of widespread international infection and subsequent pandemic.
The reason was that, as Preston’s book observed, the virus was spread only when
a person came into contact with bodily secretions of an infected person. The
occasional flare-ups of the disease in West African countries probably
originated from contact of natives with monkeys or other animals who carried
the virus without any display of symptoms. Moreover the virus was thought to
be incapable of causing widespread infection because the attack of the virus on
an infected person resulted in the rapid onset of symptoms followed by a quick
death, giving the virus little time to spread to others.
Occasional flare ups quickly died out. The killing rate for
Ebola victims back then was approximately 90%. Apparently the virus in the
20-year period since then has mutated in such a way that its human host does
not display symptoms of the infection until after a three week incubation
period. As of this writing it appears that the Ebola virus has run its course
and may disappear. It also appears that the virus has lost some of its vicious
killing capacity, as there have been a number of survivors, especially those
who have been treated early for possible exposure to it.