5.7 Individual Matter: Salome Karwah
127
A placebo is a substance that appears to be an actual or real medical treatment but is
fake (Kermen et al. 2010). The common aspect with all placebos is that they lack an
active substance that can positively influence health. When an individual believes
that they will benefit from a particular treatment, there is the likelihood that they
could experience the benefit. According to various studies, placebos could affect
conditions like pain, menopause, sleep disorders, depression, and irritable bowel
syndrome. The placebo mainly works by focusing on the expectations of a person.
Combined with the other prevention strategies, the placebo effect could act as “faith”
and prevent people from abusing drugs as it enables them to tap into the power of
positive thinking.
5.7 Individual Matter: Salome Karwah
Salome (see Fig. 5.3) was the daughter of a doctor, she met her husband, James
Harris in 2013. A year after they started dating, the Ebola epidemic struck Liberia,
Sierra Leone, and Guinea in 2014. Her family was among the first to be infected
with the virus in the summer of 2014. Karwah’s father was the first to die of Ebola,
and it eventually killed both her parents along with seven relatives. Karwah, her
sister, mother, and fiancée were also soon infected by Ebola. Along with her husband
and mother, they were quarantined in a Doctors Without Borders (also known as
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical unit with other patients awaiting treatment
(Fairall and Bateman 2017). Karwah focused on caring for her sister because she
was pregnant when she contracted Ebola. She changed her clothes and cleaned fluids
that had Ebola. She also did not inform her sister about the death of their mother
because of the fear that it would negatively affect her health.
By September 2014, the sisters recovered and were discharged on August
28, 2014. Her boyfriend, James Harris was also released a few days later after
recovering. The staff at the unit had noticed that Karwah and her boyfriend were
able to care for other victims despite it being risky to their health when still patients.
A few days after they were discharged, MSF employed them to act as mental health
counselors within the units. Karwah went back as a nurse and counselor, and it was
presumed that as survivors, they had become immune to that specific Ebola strain
(Nwafor and Nwafor 2017). She worked at the unit until the Ebola epidemic came
to an end. In October of the same year, she authored an article in the Guardian that
reiterated that assisting others made her make sense of her life. She also emphasized
that in case one has Ebola, they should not be stigmatized since the next person to
contract the virus is not known. She was featured in Time Magazine as its co-Person
of the Year on December 2014.
Harris and Karwah got engaged and married in January 2016 when she was
pregnant with their third child. In the summer of the same year, she became pregnant
again and agreed that this would be their last child. They contemplated aborting
the baby but decided to keep it. She experienced difficulties in this pregnancy and
underwent cesarean section despite being diagnosed with hypertension during that
127
A placebo is a substance that appears to be an actual or real medical treatment but is
fake (Kermen et al. 2010). The common aspect with all placebos is that they lack an
active substance that can positively influence health. When an individual believes
that they will benefit from a particular treatment, there is the likelihood that they
could experience the benefit. According to various studies, placebos could affect
conditions like pain, menopause, sleep disorders, depression, and irritable bowel
syndrome. The placebo mainly works by focusing on the expectations of a person.
Combined with the other prevention strategies, the placebo effect could act as “faith”
and prevent people from abusing drugs as it enables them to tap into the power of
positive thinking.
5.7 Individual Matter: Salome Karwah
Salome (see Fig. 5.3) was the daughter of a doctor, she met her husband, James
Harris in 2013. A year after they started dating, the Ebola epidemic struck Liberia,
Sierra Leone, and Guinea in 2014. Her family was among the first to be infected
with the virus in the summer of 2014. Karwah’s father was the first to die of Ebola,
and it eventually killed both her parents along with seven relatives. Karwah, her
sister, mother, and fiancée were also soon infected by Ebola. Along with her husband
and mother, they were quarantined in a Doctors Without Borders (also known as
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical unit with other patients awaiting treatment
(Fairall and Bateman 2017). Karwah focused on caring for her sister because she
was pregnant when she contracted Ebola. She changed her clothes and cleaned fluids
that had Ebola. She also did not inform her sister about the death of their mother
because of the fear that it would negatively affect her health.
By September 2014, the sisters recovered and were discharged on August
28, 2014. Her boyfriend, James Harris was also released a few days later after
recovering. The staff at the unit had noticed that Karwah and her boyfriend were
able to care for other victims despite it being risky to their health when still patients.
A few days after they were discharged, MSF employed them to act as mental health
counselors within the units. Karwah went back as a nurse and counselor, and it was
presumed that as survivors, they had become immune to that specific Ebola strain
(Nwafor and Nwafor 2017). She worked at the unit until the Ebola epidemic came
to an end. In October of the same year, she authored an article in the Guardian that
reiterated that assisting others made her make sense of her life. She also emphasized
that in case one has Ebola, they should not be stigmatized since the next person to
contract the virus is not known. She was featured in Time Magazine as its co-Person
of the Year on December 2014.
Harris and Karwah got engaged and married in January 2016 when she was
pregnant with their third child. In the summer of the same year, she became pregnant
again and agreed that this would be their last child. They contemplated aborting
the baby but decided to keep it. She experienced difficulties in this pregnancy and
underwent cesarean section despite being diagnosed with hypertension during that