Challenges Of Training And Protecting

Historically Ebola has had a serious impact on human health and hygiene and still does due to the fact of no vaccine or treatment being discovered, but thanks to improvements in scientific and medical knowledge the virus itself is now controllable.

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.

The average fatality rate of patients infected with Ebola is around 50% according to the World Health Organization. The nonfiction book titled The Hot Zone by Richard Preston takes readers through true events pertaining to an outbreak of Ebola in the late 1980’s at a monkey testing facility in Reston, Virginia. The author heavily emphasizes the danger surrounding ignorance and uncertainty in regard to the viral and morbid Ebola at the conclusion of the book. While Preston makes this point evident countless times, three particular quotes give a clear example of Preston’s intention.

Since the Ebola virus essentially liquefies the insides of the human body, once the brain begins to hemorrhage, the virus alters the personality of the victim (Preston, 1995, p. 39). The reader may draw the conclusion that depersonalization of Ebola victims is a terrifying reality. Ebola provides no awareness or memory to the victim when death arrives, as the plethora of effects “obliterate the person beneath them” (Preston, 1995, p. 4). Essentially, the virus is stealing the humanity away from the victim. Preston (1995) also adds “[t]he more one contemplates the hot viruses, the less they look like parasites and the more the begin to look like predators” (p. 136). The reader may wonder whether or not this virus is living or dead, and whether or not the virus is looking to destroy the human or feed on the

More active disease surveillance needs to occur. This means that health care workers should be encouraged to document and report those they think have been exposed and their contacts. In more effectively reporting suspected cases, Ebola response teams are better able to promptly follow-up, transfer to isolation centers, and assess the scope of the epidemic (Matua, Van der Wal, & Locsin,

In recent years, Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone have launched major healthcare initiatives in order to expand and improve access to services. However, the state of health systems for the last 20 years is difficult to overcome. Liberia and Sierra Leone were each embroiled in civil wars until the mid-2000s. Porous borders and a shared diamond belt meant that their conflicts were often shared, as political strife, violence, looting, armed forces, and refugees moved to neighboring countries. , Guinea in particular was on the receiving end of refugees. During that time in all three countries, health systems were uniformly poor, with under-staffed and under-resourced facilities, significant health disparities, and almost no systematic infectious disease surveillance or control.

Health care workers are having direct contact with patients or patient’s’ specimens that make them at increased risk of contracting infections and further transmitting them to colleagues and patients. Children and health care workers are the most two groups from the high-risk groups who targeted for the mandatory vaccination.

His recommendation is to utilize the outbreak to help establish the health organizations that are needed to minimize future problems. One method for accomplishing this is the 300-bed teaching hospital established by PIH in Haiti, which has been designed to help train health care professionals, while providing care to those in need.9 Overall, for Partners in Health the mission is not about conquering a single outbreak, but rather establishing quality health care for those in need to prevent future outbreaks and help diminish the poverty that is so

Ebola virus disease (EVD) policies globally has become a confusing and ongoing investigation among world governments and leaderships. The first diagnosis in America confirmed and made public by the Centers if Disease Control (CDC), was in Texas on September 20, 2014. The patient had developed symptoms around the fourth day after coming into the United States (CDC 2014). The patient had stated he did not pose any symptoms when he left West Africa. Upon falling ill, he went to a Texas hospital, and based upon the signs and symptoms he was presenting, the hospital performed a laboratory test. The test confirmed he was in fact positive for the virus, but to found in critical condition. Texas Presbyterian Hospital isolated the patient and unfortunately, the patient died from complications of the virus on October 8, 2014. As stated by DR. Tom Frieda (2014), Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “We will contact anyone we think has any likelihood of having had contact with the patient when he was infectious, starting with relatives he had been staying with” (para 2). Health officials stated that once contacts were identified, they would be monitored for 21 days, which is the incubation period for the virus, for any signs and symptoms of the infection. At that point, the person would be put into quarantine themselves (CDC 2014). The public remained uneasy and questioned what was going to be done to stop the virus

Ebola has impacted the healthcare field in an enormous way. When it came to the healthcare system, people felt like they were let down. First of all, the healthcare system gave people fear and mistrust. It was said that the disease itself was created by the healthcare system (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). When the Ebola epidemic hit the United States, the system was in question. There was question about if hospitals were properly trained for Ebola patients (Almendrala, 2014). The impact on healthcare employees was just as unsure. Healthcare workers felt nervous and wondered if they were safe. This was a critical issue because workers were not only worried about his or her safety but their families as well. Without instructions

In 2014 there was an Ebola outbreak in Africa, which spread to the USA, making our entire nation fearful because it is a fatal and deadly virus if left untreated. Ebola, also know as hemorrhagic fever, is caused by ebolavirus. It is spread though direct contact with bodily fluids, which includes droplets of fluid. Symptoms include muscle pains, fever, vomiting, and diarrhea internal\external bleeding leading to death. Unfortunately, there is no current vaccine but early treatment and interventions improves chances of survival. Ebola is not only affecting the safety of USA airlines but also affecting healthcare workers especially nurses who have the most direct contact with Ebola patients. This subject brought to my attention the question:

Governments, WHO, and the international community have a collective responsibility not only to fully staff the effort to bring Ebola under control, but also to provide adequate protective clothing, training, and support for anyone coming into contact with patients.” (Lancet) This opinion is prevalent throughout medical health care providers. Two nurses who treated Duncan at the Dallas hospital have already contracted this dreaded disease. These nurses have been transferred from the local hospital in Dallas to hospitals that have isolation units, and staff trained in dealing with very contagious infections. One nurse went to Emory University Hospital, and the other flew to the National Institutes of

The article states that there are hardly any patients who have contracted the Ebola virus and the few that are suspected to have the virus tested negative for the disease. Because there is no patient with the Ebola virus, the International Medical Corps treatment unit beds are empty. "The Ebola virus disease (EVD) first appeared in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks, one in Nzara, Sudan, and the other in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo, the latter occurred in a village near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name" Ebola virus disease (n.d.). Since the virus has started spreading to several different countries, some people started to panic while some people believe that the CDC have it under control and that they are taking

It is interesting that nursing practice must continually update and adjust to meet the changes in our society. The Ebola scare in 2014 has opened the eyes of many health care leaders to the global health concerns. Nurses must extend their vision beyond their community and be engaged in the world health issues. Along with the advances in technology comes the conveniences of outspread communication and travel access to even remotest places. It is mostly in exposing oneself to a foreign culture and condition that one contracts and spread a strange disease. Despite some general travel regulations, detecting someone in danger of harboring a disease is difficult to control due to mostly delayed symptoms.

attitudes and behaviours towards infection prevention and control and barriers to poor practice and reporting mechanisms; barriers and motivators to learning about infection prevention and control.