Ebola Kits: A Short Story

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.

Unlike HIV or other global viruses, Ebola is until this day geographically restrained, facilitating the deduction that the responsible originated from West Africa or returned from areas confirmed as danger zones. The list of suspects is indeed rather short: it amounts to Western Africans travelling to America and U.S. citizen contaminated in the same region. The latter category is, as cases in the western world indicate, consisted virtually exclusively of humanitarian helpers and health personal having been in contact with Ebola patients. Albeit these categories are subject to broad generalizations, they are the fruit of the apparent human condition to investigate, regardless of the rationality behind the reasoning. Seale baptised these generalisations “health imagined communities” (Seale, 2007, p. 92). Lupton emphasized on the experience that constructed risk communities don’t differ from real risk communities as much in their consequences as they do in their

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.

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

This book displays the historical encounters and effects of the Ebola virus have had on past lives and how the virus functions to destroy its host.

In this article, 38 years old, Emily Abaleo lives in Monrovia , Liberia, with her two children who are in a dreadful stage in their lives. She complains about her living conditions. Living in a slum has been difficult to provide food and shelter and wealth. Recently, Liberia has been affected by Ebola. Abaleo’s husband passed away from the disease a few months ago. As a single parent she is doing as much as she can to properly raise her children under theses horrific circumstances. However, Abaleo tested negative for Ebola,but the government still strictly enforced a quarantine to prevent the disease from spreading to other countries. Seeing Abaleo’s family in desperate need of assistance the government should provide better precautions to save the ones in Liberia as well as the ones in other

the Ebola outbreak could have been contained, but due to a political transition in the Democratic Republic of Congo, that was explained by the “interruption of international cooperation, inadequate disease surveillance and reporting, and a breakdown of the general health care infrastructure, due in part to a lack of motivation among poorly paid health

Differing interests and agendas impeded the containment of the Ebola virus. Most problems arose within organizations, between governments, and between outside organizations and governments. The local government and civil society organizations already had their own agendas and were known to be corrupt. The corrupt nature of the local-based organizations hindered relief during the Ebola epidemic. Furthermore, the citizens of Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone were mistrusting of the government. Because the citizens were mistrusting of their own people, they became doubtful of the outside organizations providing relief and in turn, it became problematic for outside organizations to do their work. Even the cooperation between outside organizations

The Ebola virus disease (EVD) is currently the largest outbreak recorded in history with over 5,000 deaths in the country of West Africa, as well as to overseas countries, including the United States and Spain. It is characterized by a combination of flu-like symptoms and extreme vomiting and diarrhea, which makes it hard to diagnosis without extensive blood testing. Many individuals who are infected with the virus do not overcome it due to the unavailability of proper equipment and medicines. Unfortunately, this is believed to be one of the factors in the beginning of the outbreak. Facilities in West Africa did not have the

The first time I heard about Ebola was when I visited my aunt. I recall staying home that day due to the feeling of sickness, but I went to my aunt’s house because I started to feel lonely while everyone was at work. As I got to my aunt’s house she told me to make

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.

Hospitals The most evident cases of the Ebola virus outbreak and poor medical infrastructure have been noted in hospital settings alone. If a hospital isn’t able to provide patients with quality and rapid treatment, then one can assume that the population it serves is indeed in danger. A hospital is where the sick look to when diseases such as Ebola leave them helpless. While developed nations with remarkable healthcare infrastructure are able to both diagnose and treat patients in clean and life supporting conditions, many poor regions like Africa struggle to create these resources for patients within

To date in the 2014 Ebola Virus (EBOV) outbreak in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, 4818 people (60% of the laboratory confirmed cases) have died. Over 13,500 cases have been reported. Included in the mortality figures are more than 400 medical staff. The effect of the outbreak on the region’s already fragile health infrastructure has been catastrophic. Access to basic preventable medical conditions such malaria, diarrhea and respiratory

Before the Ebola virus, the economies of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea were progressing. They were experiencing great economic growth and it was all shot down by the Ebola virus. This epidemic across West Africa has killed more people than any other known Ebola outbreak combined (“Ebola: Mapping the outbreak,” 2014). As of now, there is no proven cure for the Ebola virus. Ebola is an infectious and fatal disease, which begins with fever and internal bleeding. Vaccines are being tested currently, and are still being tried to see if they become effective, though no vaccine has been found to cure Ebola. Upon retrieving this virus inside in one’s body, he/she needs to be isolated and taken for medical attention immediately. The odds of receiving the Ebola virus is very low, but there is costs associated in curing and finding a potential cure to Ebola. The cost to treat Ebola can be very expensive and unaffordable for the majority of people. According to NBC News, two patients who were treated at the University of Nebraska’s Medical Center, both combined cost of $1.16 million dollars (Fox, 2014). It averages out to $30,000 a day, per patient. These costs occurred