A Brief Note On The Outbreak Of Ebola

On March 23, the WHO’s Regional Office for Africa (AFRO) released the first Ebola report on the emergence of the disease in Guinea. At this time, the WHO sent teams into the field to manage and trace cases. It also notified WHO labs across Africa to prepare to diagnose cases. As the prevalence of Ebola grew, the WHO maintained contact with its regional offices in West Africa. AFRO’s regional director, Dr. Luis Sambo, called for greater epidemiological aid and implementation of the IHR’s alert system requirements. Between March and May of 2014, the WHO sent more than 100 experts to aid in the control of the outbreak. A cross border surveillance program began in June to limit the spread of the disease between the countries. During this time, the WHO continued meeting with government leaders in West Africa, AFRO representatives, and relevant organizations including the CDC and MSF. In June, MSF called for the WHO to increase its response. Margaret Chan, the Director-General of the WHO responded by upgrading the outbreak a Level 3 emergency. A Level 3 grade constitutes a greater WHO role in the outbreak, particularly through an increase in resources

According to Cullinane and Park, “Hundreds of people are dead as the worst Ebola virus outbreak in history sweeps through West Africa” (Cullinane & Park, 2014, para. 1). Spread of the potential health crisis known as Ebola can be decelerated by understanding it, learning how to treat it, and quarantining. The Ebola virus causes a high-risk hemorrhagic fever that affects multiple organ systems in the body and is often accompanied by bleeding (Cullinane & Park, 2014, What is Ebola? section, para. 1). Medecins Sans Frontiers (2014) says, “It is a highly infectious virus that can kill up to 90 percent of the people who catch it” (“Ebola Emergency”, n.d.). Clearly, Ebola is a catastrophic virus which has gathered a lot of attention. Slowing the

Ebola virus (EBOV) is considered to be one of the most belligerent contagious agents and has an ability to cause highly fatal hemorrhagic fever syndrome that results in human and non-human primate’s death (NHPs) during the days of exposure. The first notification of the virus was mentioned in the Ebola River valley in Zaire for the time of an outburst in 1976. Moreover, the outbursts have appeared in Africa over the following 27 years, with death rates that differ from 50 to 90%. In Central Africa, for the last three years outbursts have been recognized every year, the most recent of which proceeded in the Republic of the Congo with the amount of victims more than 125, according to the World Health Organization (“Ebola

In late 2013, Ebola virus disease (EVD), a deadly and lethal disease, remerged in West Africa spreading to various countries in the region. In humans, the disease is spread through contact with infected bodily fluids leading to haemorrhagic fever (World Health Organization [WHO], 2015). Originating in 1976 in equatorial Africa, past outbreaks with a few hundred cases had been contained within rural, forested areas in Uganda and Congo (Piot, 2012). In 2014, a total of 20, 206 cases and 7,905 deaths were reported to have occurred in up to eight countries worldwide. Of all cases and deaths resulting from the disease, 99.8% occurred in three neighbouring West African countries - Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea (WHO, 2014). With a case fatality rate from about 50% to 90%, and the absence of preventative or curative therapies, the Ebola epidemic has led to overall global alarm and further elucidated existing global health disparities that perpetuated the epidemic with these West African countries.

In 2014 the United States was hit with a force far more deadly and dangerous than many threats received. The ebola virus took the world by storm after it was carried to the United States and spread by people who had visited West Africa. This virus was all the more deadly as it often took hours for any symptoms to occur. In this time the Center for Disease Control spent much time and many resources looking for answers to the many questions they had. Under the time constraint and scrutinizing public, they had to determine what ebola was, what it did and its effects on the general public.

Although Ebola caught the world’s attention during the 1995 outbreak in Zaire, the first outbreak occurred in 1976. As the chart below displays, 71% of the people infected died as a result of Ebola during this first outbreak (Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 56 (2): 247-270, 1978). With the current outbreak, this ratio has dramatically decreased as a result of scientific research leading to early detection, but the current infected population is more than 20 times the amount of any previous outbreak and this number continues to grow as no vaccine exists to prevent the disease.

As with any infectious disease, whether it originates from a virus, bacterium, or fungi, there is the possibility that it will become an epidemic. For centuries, deadly diseases have threatened to infect and possibly eradicate mankind. The Ebola virus, which causes an extremely fatal hemorrhagic fever, is considered to be one of the most aggressive contagions in the world. The Ebola virus is a member of a family of RNA viruses known as, “Filoviridae” and is composed of multiple distinct subspecies (Bausch et al. 2007). It causes Ebola Virus Disease, a fairly new disease that plagues multiple poor countries within Africa. The virus mainly attacks the lymphatic system, but also severely damages the reproductive and reticuloendothelial systems. The Ebola virus disease causes muscle pain, weakness, limited kidney and liver function and extreme blood loss due to failure of blood clotting.

Discovered in 1976 near the Ebola River, Ebola’s first two outbreaks in Sudan and Zaire killed the majority, over half, of the people infected with the disease. Although the natural host reservoir of Ebola has yet to be found, the virus is believed to be animal-borne. A person gets Ebola from a wild animal and then is spread throughout the human population through person-to-person transmission. Healthcare workers providing aide for Ebola victims know that they have a high possibility of contracting the disease because they are exposed to infected blood and body fluids. It could take from two to twenty-one days for the Ebola Virus to show symptoms in humans, and

Recently in 2014, there was a major outbreak from Ebola. The virus first transmitted to humans from wild animals and spread even more to the human race by close contact. The number cases for this current year so far is 9,936; 4,877 have been killed by this disease. This sickness can be treatable, early care is very important with rehydration, symptomatic treatment can improve survival rates. Ebola has been slowly dying down but has not totally been wiped out.

The Ebola outbreak of 2014 in West Africa with its devastating outcomes has been a worldwide alarming situation leading to the development of research studies in attempt to better understand the disease and find ways of controlling its spread. One of the most affected countries, Liberia, has been the subject of a research study conducted by doctors and epidemiologists of Yale University in Connecticut. Such research focused on investigating the influence of disease progression on transmission and fatality, as well as actions to take in effort to reduce transmission rates (Yamin et al., 2015). The results were published in The Annals of Internal

The symptoms of Ebola are a fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, vomiting, stomach pain, sore throat, diarrhea, weakness and occasionally read eyes, rashes, hiccups, and internal and external bleeding and since these symptoms are not specific to Ebola, it is difficult to clinically diagnose and can often be confused with other viruses. The ELISA testing, short for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and virus isolation are a couple of examples of the types of laboratory testing that can be done to diagnose and Ebola patient. Because of how easily it can be transmitted, it is extremely difficult to treat and there is no approved, official treatment. As of now, there is not standard treatment but usually the patients are given fluids and oxygen, have their blood pressure monitored and other necessary treatment. To prevent transmission and spreading the virus, the doctors use extreme caution and wear head to toe protective gear and isolate the patient. Even though the Ebola virus is common in Africa, there has been no known outbreak in the United States. Another difficulty facing scientists and the treatment for Ebola is that the natural reservoir for the virus unknown. The natural reservoir of a virus is it’s long term host of the

There is no doubt that some of the most feared organisms on this planet are invisible to the human eye. People are both fearful and fascinated by how such tiny microorganisms, such as viruses, can cause the decimation of whole populations of both humans and various animals. At the current moment, the worst outbreak of the Ebola virus that has ever happened is occurring in West Africa. This disease is so frightening because it can quickly result in a terrible, agonizing death of any unfortunate soul that has become infected. This specific virus can quite literally cause the liquefaction of the organs within the human body. As Ebola takes hold of many villages and towns in West Africa, surrounding countries are scrambling to send supplies and aid workers in an attempt to stop the spread of such a lethal virus. The Ebola virus first made its way to the United States this past October, sending many U.S. citizens in to a state of hysteria out of fear that an Ebola epidemic will occur on American soil. As the death toll of the recent outbreak keeps rising steadily, only time will tell if the virus can be stopped in its track before spreading across the globe to infect inhabitants in all corners of the world.

Ebola Virus causes an acute, serious illness which is often fatal if it is not treated, the virus first appeared in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks. One in which is now Nzara, South of Sudan, and the other in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. It occurred in a village near the Ebola River, this is where the disease got its name. The current outbreak in West Africa was notified in March 2014, and this is the largest and most complex Ebola outbreak there was since it was discovered in 1976. There have been more cases and deaths in this outbreak than all others combined, it has also spread in countries like Guinea, then spreading to Land borders in Sierra Leon and Liberia. By air 1 traveler to Nigeria and 1 traveler to USA, and by land to Senegal was 1 traveler, and 2 travelers to Mali who caught Ebola.

In the late 1970s, the international community was alarmed by the discovery of the Ebola virus. (Schwarz and Siegl, 1996) It was the ‘causative agent’ (Peters and Peters, 2015) of EHF (Ebola hemorrhagic fever). Ebola stems from a virus family know as Filoviridae. The virus targets various parts of the body causing a critical sickness of fever, diarrhoea, vomiting and in severe cases bleeding. However, infections do not always lead to death. ‘In previous outbreaks, 40-90% of known infections have resulted in death’ (Prevention, 2015) The very first cases were detected near a river found in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan.

Normally infecting fruit bats, the Ebola virus found a mutation allowing it to spread to humans. This virus is an acute and often fatal illness. This virus first erupted in two outbreaks in 1976 (one occurring in Nzara and Sudan, while the other occurred in a village near the Ebola river, where the virus takes its name.) The current outbreak, starting in West Africa with the potential to spread throughout the world,  is  larger and more complex than previous outbreaks. This virus has caused more deaths than all other past Ebola outbreaks combined. With approximately five people infected with the virus every hour in Sierra Leone alone, how far – and how fast – will the Ebola virus go?