The Ice Bucket Challenge that has gone viral for the past
few days needs no introduction – with actors, musicians, TV celebs, sportsmen,
politicians and businessmen as well as common folks posting videos of them
getting doused in ice cold water, we all probably know about it now.
But do we all really know what it is about? Very few of the people going under
bucketfuls of chilled water have mentioned that all of it is for a cause and
for charity. They just seem to be having fun and challenging their friends to
do the same. And common people waste no time in aping them.
And some of us those who know that the ice bucket ritual is for
ALS, do
we really know what ALS is? It is a neurodegenerative disease which
affects a person’s nerve cells situated in the brain as well as spinal cord.
This disease impairs the motor neurons’ ability to send impulses to muscles,
which in turn leads to the muscles becoming immobile. Finally, it causes loss
of movement, speech, swallowing and sometimes even breathing, and the affected
person dies of it.
As of now, there is no cure or even treatment which can
reverse or halt ALS. There are people who have been living with for years while
some have had a quicker degeneration and have died. There are many clinical
trials under progress to help people suffering from ALS and the Ice Bucket
Challenge began with the aim of raising awareness about the disease and
encouraging people to donate money to organizations helping ALS patients and
carrying out research for treatment of ALS.
However, people posting videos on social networking sites
seem to be having a lot of fun with the Ice Bucket Challenge, which has also
been slammed as wastage of water by many critics. And they are not wrong,
either- In a country like ours, where clean drinking water is not available to
many people, it is definitely a waste. Maybe people can just go ahead and
donate money to some organization working for ALS patients instead.
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