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New Ebola outbreak spreading in Democratic Republic of the Congo

NEWS

An outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has spread from the countryside into Mbandaka, a city of over three hundred thousand people, prompting fears that the disease will be increasingly hard to control.

COMMENT

With the return of Ebola to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, questions are being asked as to whether the world has learned the right lessons from the previous outbreak of the disease in 2014-2015. In that outbreak, over 11 thousand people lost their lives and the World Health Organization (WHO) was widely criticized for being too slow to take action and recognize the outbreak as an international health emergency.

As Dr. Rath pointed out at the time, the 2014 Ebola outbreak was a chance to embrace natural medicine. Largely unnoticed during the scientific debate that took place, the Ebola virus was causing disease and death only in humans and subhuman primates. Other natural hosts of this dangerous virus are not known to develop the disease.  These ‘protected’ hosts also include antelopes, porcupines and fruit eating bats. Remarkably, even though these animals can carry the Ebola virus for many years, they remain unaffected by it.

There is an explanation for this fact. Most animals synthesize vitamin C in their bodies in huge amounts. Vitamin C, being one of the most powerful antiviral agents of nature, is apparently able to prevent, or at least limit, the disastrous health consequences of the Ebola virus. In the case of fruit-eating bats, an animal unable to synthesize vitamin C, their diet consists almost exclusively of fresh fruits that are high in vitamin C content.

In contrast, humans cannot produce a single molecule of vitamin C in their bodies and frequently suffer from vitamin deficiencies due to insufficient dietary intake. This makes the human body susceptible to Ebola and other viruses.

Thus, it is not surprising that the characteristic symptoms of the Ebola infection – massive blood loss through leaky blood vessel walls – bear a striking resemblance to the well-defined vitamin C deficiency symptoms of the sailors’ disease, scurvy.

The antiviral properties of vitamin C and certain other micronutrients have been proven beyond any scientific doubt. Moreover, their benefits in augmenting and improving the immune system have been recognized by no less than nine Nobel prizes.

It is therefore high time that local, national and global health authorities – and particularly the WHO – take advantage of these scientific facts and promote them as primary public health measures to contain this latest Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Read article on the BBC News website (UK)