Ebola Case Study

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.

Ebola is a virus that is transmitted to other individuals through direct contact with blood and body fluids of those infected (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2015). In the most recent outbreak in 2014, the video Ebola Outbreak (2014) illustrated that the virus quickly became a worldwide epidemic. As the virus became so widespread throughout Africa, Ebola-infected so many people in such a short time frame. While the organization, Doctors without Borders was intimately involved early on, they quickly learned that the manpower they had to offer was not nearly enough. The group identified that they had no way of performing contact tracing, which is a way of following patients that were contaminated and quickly led to additional cases of infection in astronomical numbers. According to the follow-up video, Outbreak (2014) the organization Doctors without Borders communicated to the World Health Organization (WHO) made a valiant

For example, the CDC plays a vital role in dealing with Ebola and operating in west Africa is most common. They have opened an Emergency Operations Center to coordinate operation that deal with Ebola. The CDC also has thousands of staff members developed in Africa specially to deal with the data management of Ebola and teach about the effects and symptoms of Ebola to underdeveloped countries. Also, the CDC have people prepared along the borders of countries assist with any outbreaks if one occurs. (CDC).

In 2014 the world watched in horror as West Africa experienced the largest Ebola epidemic in history. Affected countries in Africa included Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone and the epidemic, having begun in December 2013, went on for a full year, with additional cases occurring throughout 2015. Over 19,000 cases were reported by December 2014 and of those, 7,518 lost their lives. Today, we know that in total, over 11,000 people lost their lives ("Previous case counts", 2016). There were many factors at play in this outbreak, such as the emergence of a new strain Ebola virus; a lack of preparedness in West Africa, where Ebola had not been seen prior to 2014; a shortage of health care workers and subsequent death of many more them, leading

What was usually a disease contained in regions of sub-Saharan Africa became a global worry. Although the outbreak started in Guinea, it quickly spread to two neighboring countries. From these three countries, cases were then transmitted to the United States, Spain, and the United Kingdom. No vaccine was available to stop the spread of Ebola. This deadly disease went from being a problem in only a small region of the world to being seen in three noncontiguous countries, which could have sowed the seeds of a pandemic had the cases not been contained. As a global community, we gain from our interactions with all citizens, but we must also be aware that we can also suffer from diseases that we think of as only affecting the “others.” If we do not help those “others,” we may become part of

The world is affected by the spread of Ebola because the illness can travel worldwide. This deadly disease could potentially have very harsh affects on the world's population in its entirety. Many countries are involved, including the United States, who is supporting Africa in their attempts to stop the spread of

UNICEF officer, Suzanne Mary Beukes provided a clearer insight to how poor the country of Guinea is when she wrote, "The world has virtually quarantined a country in which 43 percent of people were already living on less than $1.25 a day prior to this health crisis” (Gholipour, 2014). The countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone (the countries where outbreaks primarily occurred), are some of the poorest countries in the world as a result of their recent civil war and the damaged health and education infrastructures that followed. (“Factors that Contributed to the Spread of Ebola,” n.d., para. 10). The poor infrastructures led to the delayed transportation of patients and lab work to labs and hospitals in addition to the lack of communication between health facilities. In addition to the lack of health facilities, there was shortage of healthcare workers. “Prior to the outbreaks, the three countries (Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone) had a ratio of only one to two doctors per nearly 100,000 population” (“Factors that Contributed to the Spread of Ebola,” n.d., para. 15). The poverty in these cities and countries lead people to want to move to a better standard of living, be treated for the virus, and look for food &

Ebola was first recognized in 1976 as the cause of outbreaks of disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then known as Zaire) and in Sudan. About three hundred people in each of the two nations were infected with the virus, resulting in a mortality rate of 88% in Zaire, and 53% in Sudan (Bulletin of the WHO 1978). The disease as it was discovered spread through direct contact of unmans to humans, and then thought, from non-human primates to humans. The epidemic was a result of unsafe and unsanitary hospital practices, and non-sterilized medical equipment. The disease was then contained, however sporadic outbreaks of the Zaire and Sudan Ebola subtypes have risen in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Uganda, and Sudan; one of the latest outbreaks was in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in September of 2007.

Care of people with Ebola is difficult and varied due to the highly infectious and often fatal nature of the disease. For instance, care can occur through traditional healers, the home, primary health care facilities and hospitals (Manguvo, A & Mafuvadze, B 2015, p. 2). Where a individual seeks care depends on the level of trust in the healthcare system, accessibility and abundance of healthcare facilities, financial and economic stance and cultural beliefs (WHO 2016). There was considerable difference in the ability of health care services to deal with infectious diseases due to scarcity in supplies and training. When the Ebola epidemic began in 2014 Sierra Leone 's government health care system was built on rigid foundations. There were scant resources, limited infrastructure, poor training on infection prevention and control and a severe shortage of health care workers with a ratio of 1.9 workers for every 10,000 people. (Michaels-Strasser et al. 2015, p. 61). The lack of IPC training lead to ‘health care workers being 100 times more likely than the general population to contract Ebola’ (Ratnayake et al. 2016, p. 2). When healthcare workers became infected colleges became frightened further reducing community trust in the healthcare system.

The FRONTLINE documentary, Outbreak, tells the story of the Ebola outbreak of 2014. They trace the disease way back to where the very first cases of it were scene. The outbreak of ebola originated in the West African country of Guinea. It quickly begins to spread to other countries like Sierra Leone and Nigeria. The spreading was a result of individuals who contracted the disease moving and traveling across Africa. Many of these countries believe that they could control the disease at a small-scale, but they surely underestimated the severity of the outbreak. As more and more cases arose, and the disease spread even within the hospitals and quarantine sites, it seemed liked there was no resolution. With so many unanswered questions and no solution

Specific Purpose Statement and Central Idea: Although WHO’s is an organization for controlling the outbreaks of virtuous diseases, many people may want to know what is going on within the worlds health organization. There are some agreements and disagreements to WHO’s continuation of handling the situation. Today, I will inform my audience about why WHO’s should or should not handle the Ebola situation.

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

Prevention of the Ebola virus is more useful than the treatments. Improving sanitation is an important thing to do in rural African countries. Any victims need to be isolated as soon as possible. Quarantining of infected people from others plays a major role. People who have been in close contact with the infected

Doctors Without Borders has been active in many African countries for years. In some cases, it has even been the only provider of health care in some areas of the continent. When the Ebola virus began to spread in some parts of Africa,

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.