Ebola Outbreak Of The United States

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 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.

The control monkeys were never injected with the Ebola virus; they were placed across the room from the sick monkeys. After the control monkeys were found to be infected with Ebola it was proposed that “Ebola drifted across a room. Most likely the control monkeys inhaled it into their lungs” (Preston 93-94). Finding out that Ebola was possibly spread through the air posed as a large problem as Karl Johnson explained to Preston in an interview, “If Ebola had spread through the air, the world would be a very different place today… It would have been exceedingly difficult to contain that virus if it had had any major respiratory component” (Preston 121). The Ebola strain that Johnson encountered appeared to not be spread through the air, however there is substantial evidence that other strains are. “In 2012 Canadian researchers found that Ebola Zaire, which is involved in the current outbreak, was passed from pigs to monkeys in the air” (Cohen 1). Ebola is aggressive enough that some researchers believe it is able to enter a person’s bloodstream through a small scrape (Preston 142-143). Ebola was actually spread by medical staff in some areas such as the Yambuku Hospital where nuns used five needles a day for hundreds of their patients. This mixed blood and gave Ebola the opportunity to spread (Preston 102). It

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

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

Although Ebola caught the world’s attention during the 1995 outbreak in Zaire, the first outbreak occurred in 1976. As the chart below displays, 71% of the people infected died as a result of Ebola during this first outbreak (Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 56 (2): 247-270, 1978). With the current outbreak, this ratio has dramatically decreased as a result of scientific research leading to early detection, but the current infected population is more than 20 times the amount of any previous outbreak and this number continues to grow as no vaccine exists to prevent the disease.

Two of the nurses caring for Duncan contracted Ebola. One of them was Nurse Nina Pham. “Pham, 26, was the first person to contract Ebola on U.S. soil” (McCallister 1). It would seem the hospital was not equipped or trained to deal with an Ebola patent (2). She, like Duncan’s

The protective measures that were implemented to defend against the spread of Ebola to the United States of America have somewhat failed. The President did verbally assure all Americans that he and the rest of American leaders have its citizen’s safety as a number one priority. Obama stated, “America will do everything in its power to ensure that the virus is contained in Liberia and West Africa;” this was perceived as a faulty since Thomas Duncan, was able to penetrate the barriers that were set in place, and brought Ebola to Dallas, Texas (Obama-America Will Ensure, 2014). To expand on this perceived falsehood the government then decided to send healthy American citizens to the “Ebola War Zone” to contain the epidemic from spreading outside of infected African villages. It did not appear logical at the time to send perfectly healthy soldiers into an infectious

The man coming from Liberia to the United States on the 20th of September was allegedly the first case in America to be infected with 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

Diagnosis of the Ebola virus is very hard to do. You need a specialized laboratory to perform the blood test. These laboratories are not available commercially, so basically only the government can do it. The lab is an extreme bio hazard. It is conducted under maximum containment conditions.

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

The most current outbreak of Ebola is in West Africa which was discovered in March of 2014 and is considered one of the biggest Ebola outbreaks since Ebola was discovered in 1976. The countries affected the most by this virus are Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. These countries do not have a stable economy which means they cannot afford the tools and technology to study the virus. In 2014 there were 9,936 Ebola victims but only 4,877 died that year. The virus has an extremely high risk of death. It kills between 25 and 90 percent of those infected by Ebola. Recovery from Ebola usually depends on care and the patient’s immune system's response to the treatment.

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