Ebola Intervention Essay

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.

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.

The whole world is at edge knowing that Ebola is a very lethal virus and it is very tough to treat and cure an infected person. But it has been seen that in countries were level of development is higher and health care is easily reached this disease can be fought.

Although Ebola was first reported in 1976, little news was released on the outbreaks which had occurred in Sudan and Zaire and which had taken away the lives of 434 people. Then in 1989 there was the Reston incident, where monkeys shipped to the United States from the Philippines, died in large numbers due to what is now known as Ebola Reston, and the virus killed all monkeys. Fortunately that particular strain was not found to be deadly to humans. For now, the Ebola virus appears again and causes large damage in Africa. The horrible disease failed to appeal to those media institution which results in the information interruption, the public do not have an access to the newly information concerning Ebola. The study on the relationship between

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

The outbreak of Ebola virus in West Africa, a strain never seen in the region, is scary indeed. To hear about medical professionals, who are supposed to know more about Ebola than anyone else, fall helplessly in the line of duty is very frightening. Ebola is another of Africa’s brand-killers. And it seems to take the shine away from the story of a continent that has been rising unprecedentedly in a post-financial crisis era - where economic growth is in short supply. Even the historic US-Africa Summit and its outcome were overshadowed by the world-wide panic over the viral contagion. Two African Heads of States of the affected countries even declined an opportunity to take pictures with the first American President of African blood—

Hey! So I was reading this essay in the book that I bought for my English 101 class about how the horrible stuff you see on the news is COMPLETELY blown out of proportion sometimes and I just thought, “Wow, that’s completely true.” ‘Cause sometimes it’s just ridiculous! Like a couple years ago when there was that Ebola crisis and people TOTALLY freaked out! In reality, not many people in America got it and yet SO MANY PEOPLE were afraid of getting it. Like, what the hell? That’s stupid. People can be worried about the people who ARE getting it, but to actually think you’d contract it yourself is completely unrealistic! People seriously need to calm down.

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

Some people do not realize the problems Ebola has caused on this world. It’s become a well known subject around America in the past year. I would like to point out a few things noticed by Ebola. A few of these are that it is very contagious, it had just recently last year became such a problem here in the U.S, and that the world needs more people for researching this kind of information.

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

The recent outbreak of Ebola has promoted international involvement from many organizations and governments. Most of these efforts have been focused on short-term solutions to control the disease. However, while many organizations provided medical workers, aid, and supplies to combat Ebola, their actions were insufficient to stop the spread of disease. There remains a multitude of problems in Sub-Saharan Africa, including lack of locally trained medical professionals and poor coordination between global health organizations and governments. Ultimately, these issues must be addressed in order to stop the spread of Ebola as well as other infectious diseases.

SECOND POINT: Although an outbreak in America is highly unlikely, the fact that Ebola has been diagnosed on American soil brings fear to all. Because of its infectiousness and long incubation period, and the banality of early symptoms, it can be difficult to track and contain. We also do not have a cure for this disease, sure we have experimental drugs, but nothing official. The spread has been much quicker in this outbreak than others, affecting both urban and rural areas. Usual protective measures to prevent the spread appear to be less effective in this epidemic. What ebola does to the human body defies reason and is something like out of a horror movie, not a text book. Americans feel hopeless and vulnerable because Ebola is here. The victim who flew from Liberia to Dallas, Texas on September 30th of this year did expose others and there is a risk of it spreading. The Ebola virus is the most terrifying and least-understood virus known to man. We are witnessing the onset of a deadly mutation anticipated and feared for almost four decades. Americans have watched fully informed and trained health care workers contract Ebola.

     The real treatment for the Ebola virus is prevention of the outbreak. More recent outbreaks have taken fewer lives because health officials have been introduced to these recommended and proper control techniques. - Improving sanitation, hygiene, and health care and education amongst the population. - Quarantining of Ebola patients (this is permitted but not required). - Supervising international travel. - Improving communications for epidemiological education and notification, and coordination of health organizations. - Encouraging hospital personnel to use the patient isolation method called the ‘barrier technique’, which includes: 1) doctors and nurses wearing protective clothing like masks and gloves, 2) restricting the patients’ visitors, 3) sterilization of reusable material, 4) disposing and incineration of disposable material right after their first and only use, and 5) all hard surfaces being cleaned with sanitizing solution.

Since there is no  preventative treatment for the Ebola virus currently and treatment is only experimental, we have to take careful measures in