Ebola has affected many African countries such as Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. In fact, “these countries have experienced the largest known Ebola virus disease epidemic with approximately 13,000 persons infected as of October 28, 2014” (Chevalier, Chung, & Smith, 2014). Then in late September 2014, a 45-year-old male who had arrived in the United States from Liberia 5 days earlier went to a Texas emergency department. It then came to the attention that this patient had Ebola and the CDC implemented appropriate guidelines to the hospital of Texas. These guidelines were implemented in order to prevent an Ebola outbreak. In fact, everyone who was in direct contact of the patient had daily monitoring for 21 days after the exposure (Cases,
There has been an acute worry roaming about the United States concerning the Ebola Outbreak. Originally, Ebola had never touched the United States until September of 2014. (4) The disease was originated from and named after a river in the Democratic of Congo. Since discovered, there have been known cases in Africa. There have been many very deadly cases of Ebola - the fatality rate is estimated to from about fifty to ninety percent. (2) To the United States, there had never been any worry about the disease until September twentieth of 2014. A man by the name of Thomas Eric Duncan boarded flight 822 from Liberia to Dallas, Texas. Flight 822 was where it all began. Nobody had any
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.
Since the epidemic started the CDC, WHO and other U.S. government agencies coordinated a uniform response to the affected areas to gain control over this horrific occurrence. During the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the CDC was organizing Ebola treatment centers in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). These designated hospitals were spread throughout the U.S. and began receiving patients, many whom were doctors, aid workers, missionaries and one reporter. These centers received specialized training, as well as dedicated areas for the infected individuals. As the Ebola became more evident throughout the United States, medical staff became more informed of the illness and specialized training was necessary for front-line staff. Even though community hospitals were not likely to have been affected by patients being transferred from Africa, they too were receiving additional Ebola training for this
This Ebola outbreak taught us many factors of public health that we simply ignore daily, like washing hands. These viruses are easily transmitted from person to person, through their blood or body-fluids. Therefore it is very important to research about our public health around us, for everyone’s health and future. The Ebola outbreak showed how the world is very ignorant of their public health. It is better for them to know all of these tragedies and educate themselve to prevent from any other outbreaks that will take place in the future. The plan to release more information and persuade to adjust West African culture will definitely make public healthier, view the world differently, and our future generations will learn the importance of learning
Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) is a virus transmitted from humans or animals through body fluids. It is transmitted by means of contact with infected blood, mucous membranes, semen and other secretions, therefore being skin lesions and sexual contact significant ways of transmission (Boulton, 2014). As a transmittable disease, progression of the virus had been thought to be linked to higher probabilities of transmission, and therefore safety of persons in contact with infected patients was in question (Yamin et al., 2015). A study conducted in Liberia in 2014 proved such hypothesis to be true and concluded that prompt and accurate isolation of infected patients was a safe method
During class, we watched the NOVA special Ebola: The Plague Fighters. This was an event that dealt with how Kikwit, a city that holds roughly 400,000 people in Zaire (which is now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo). During this NOVA special, there were many examples of how humans evolve and how evolutionary processes in regards to disease and human survivorship. This essay will only talk about the few major examples that were shown which include: cultural evolution (the ability to have doctors from everywhere help, and the ability to quarantine the city) and biological evolution (how we become resistant to the ebola).
Every illness begins at a single source that can rapidly spread to susceptible individuals who are completely unaware of what is occurring before them. This infection sparks a chain of events that can quickly transform a small illness into an epidemic. On March 25, 2014 the World Health Organization(WHO) announced the outbreak of a new strain of the Ebola virus disease with 86 suspected cases[15]. From this point onward, constant updates have been documented, and until the end of November 2014 the condition grew in number and prevalence[7]. With additional efforts and protocols instituted by organizations such as the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the virus began to fall until the present day. Fortunately, a pharmaceutical company
The 2014 Ebola outbreak was the first occurrence of Ebola in West Africa, killing thousands of people. The epidemic caused panic worldwide as the World Health Organization (WHO) struggled to contain what it claimed would be a brief outbreak. It was through this unsuccessful response that the WHO came under increased scrutiny. Investigations into the WHO revealed deficiencies across many aspects of the organization. Most notably, the WHO was criticized for its lack of emergency preparedness, its ineffective implementation of the International Health Regulations, and its failure to respond to the outbreak with the necessary force. While these criticisms questioned
The ebola virus disease is a deathly illness first discovered in the late twentieth century. This disease is viral, spreading from human to human through any bodily fluid contact. Due to this process infection, it is easy enough to become unprotected and cause a mass-distribution of the disease among the human populace. Regretfully, this disease had gone undetected within West Africa until March of 2014, when it had branched off from just the one country Guinea to four of its surrounding countries. This probes as one of the world’s newest health issues since there is no vaccine to prevent this disease from sweeping across the rest of nation and infecting us all.
Considering that the Ebola virus originated from Africa, Africa still remains the country with the highest number of infected citizens (2). The spread of Ebola has become particularly problematic in western Africa. The outbreak has killed over 40,000 people in Liberia, over 3,500 in Sierra, and over 2,536 in Guinea. Luckily, casual contact with an infected person is not sufficient enough to contaminate someone. It is through direct contact with body fluids such as the
The Ebola virus is arguably one of the most lethal and fearful viruses ever known to mankind, killing thousands in its path. Ebola has sparked interest as of late, in large part due the 2014 Ebola virus outbreak, which originated in West Africa and eventually spread all over the world, including the U.S. With the emergence of Ebola in the U.S, it has been suggested by many that Americans subjected to Ebola must be isolated and put in quarantine until it’s known with certainty that they don’t have the virus. In this paper, I argue that Americans who have been exposed to Ebola shouldn’t be formally quarantined since Ebloa virus transmission appears to be unlikely in asymptomatic individuals, quarantine may discourage health care professionals
In our decade, there have been mass discoveries of ways to treat, cure and prevent infectious viruses. If you were to just Google infectious virus breakthroughs the results would almost seem endless. With the recent outbreak of the Ebola virus one might begin to forget or bypass any recent advances. There is no denying that the Ebola virus has already had a tragic effect on our globe, and with our 24-hour news update availability it is often uncertain of what is true and what is untrue.
To start off, I will briefly explain what Ebola is. Ebola (also known as Ebola Virus Disease or EVD) is a severe virus that started in late 1996 and was first misdiagnosed as a new form of malaria. I can understand why they diagnosed the patients with malaria, the early symptoms were similar, but the main reason is that they never knew Ebola even existed. Soon after, 1st September to be more precise, there was a large outbreak and there were approximately [1]280 deaths and only 38 confirmed survivors. The Ebola virus can spread very easily even though it is not airborne, though it is waterborne and can be passed on through close contact as well as STD's and through mother to child. The area that has been most infected is in Africa because of the lack of facilities and healthcare staff available in the area as well as poor training. Another reason is that the burial rituals include kissing touching and close contact. This causes Ebola to spread faster since it can stay on a dead persons' body for up to six months
One of the most devastating and frightening diseases to encroach on unsuspecting African communities is the deadly Ebola virus. This virus was believed to have first reared its ugly head in the mid 1970s with outbreaks in both the Sudan and Zaire. These epidemics resulted in more than 600 cases of people infected, and had alarming case fatality rates as high as 90 percent.1 Such profound numbers drove fear and panic into the hearts of the local population, with people confused and frightened about losing the entire members of their family. Yet, despite the severity of the 1970s outbreak, Ebola managed to remain fairly quiet for the next several years until a group of outbreaks occurred in the mid 1990s