Ebola Progression Paper

Thousands have died and many are in danger from the effects of Ebola. In 2013, the pestilent virus began in Guinea where it then meandered into Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal. The African countries are now facing challenges to fight and prevent the malaise. The alarming death rate is forcing the region into a state of crisis. The affected countries are striving for a cure, however, the issue remains incorrigible. “In addition, as a number of these countries are quite poor, aid and health

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.

The Ebola epidemic is a viral disease that spreads very quickly and has high mortality rate. The outbreak is actually an international disaster at the moment and has created a lot of tension worldwide (Spark, 2015). Presently the epidemic is ongoing in most of West Africa countries with Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea being the most badly hit. The epidemic has been reported in Nigeria, Mali, United States, Senegal and Spain too (World Bank, 2015). However, the epidemic has been maintained in most of the countries except in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea where Ebola is yet to be controlled. It is worth noting that other countries especially African countries are at a high risk of reporting cases of Ebola making governments from all parts of the world to remain alert (The World Bank, 2014).

In March 2014, the Ministry of Health in Guinea notified the Africa Regional Office of the World Health Organization of a new outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease [EVD]. As of December 2, 2014, this recent Ebola outbreak has seen 10,708 confirmed infections and 6,055 deaths, with the hardest hit countries being West African countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2014a). The World Health Organization officially called the West African Ebola outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Both the Epi-Info-VHF and DHIS 2 databases were cleaned and prepared by epidemiology department staff at the WHO Country Office, Liberia to produce a historical dataset of unduplicated cases. Consistent with the WHO’s Ebola Situation Reports, three categories of EVD incidence were included in this study—suspected, probable, and confirmed cases. Suspected cases included any person that had experienced symptoms consistent with EVD (e.g., high fever, vomiting) or had come in contact with persons that had suffered symptoms of EVD or a dead or sick animal. Probable cases are defined as those suspected cases evaluated by a physician. Confirmed cases are those suspected cases that were confirmed positive for EVD antigen through laboratory testing. Including suspected cases, rather than those persons examined by a physician or experienced laboratory confirmation for EVD diagnosis, captures persons without access to healthcare, an important segment among those affected by the

Ebola (EBO) virus has made its presence around April and May in 1995 (7). The virus, at first, was medically diagnosed as epidemic dysentery but was suspected by other medical providers to something else (7). The specimens of the patients were then sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in which was diagnosed as Ebola viral hemorrhagic fever, to conform their suspicion (7). This was the first large outbreak of the virus and has since then been a topic of study because of its high mortality.

The Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) has spread across several West African countries, adding a significant medical and financial burden to their healthcare systems and economies. The virus has the potential to spread and efforts to halt its progression are challenged by already struggling economies and healthcare systems. The EVD epidemic started in resource-constrained settings and caused thousands of fatalities. However, given population mobility, international travel and an increasingly globalized economy, the recent EVD epidemic has the potential to reoccur and evolve into a global pandemic [1]. Struggling health systems in West African countries pose a significant challenge to contain future EVD epidemics and to reduce its causes and effects.

Ebola virus strikes fear into the hearts of many. Incidentally, this fear seems to be most prominent in certain subsets of the population, mainly manifesting in those living in the periphery or who are impoverished. Often the hardest hit areas are peripheral nations hampered by political turmoil, weak health systems, and who are lacking in human and infrastructural resources.

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.

This Ebola outbreak first began the jungles of West Africa and has spread throughout several countries in the area, but not the U.S. This is because of many factors, including traditional medical practices in Africa, lack of technology in many African areas, and access to advanced medical facilities in the U.S. The most significant of these is Africa’s lack of highly technological medical care.

Ebola has disseminated through six countries, Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, United States, and Mali, killing 11,215 people, 21 months after the first case in March 23, 2014. The outbreaks in Nigeria and Senegal are officially over. However, Sierra Leone and Guinea’s outbreaks were larger which took more time. But Sierra Leone was declared Ebola-free on November 17,2014 and Guinea followed in December. In addition, Liberia had the worst outbreak, killing more than 4800 people. During August and September 2014, Liberia was announcing 30-40 cases per week. The outbreak was declared over until a 17-year old man died and more cases were reported. Also, Nigeria revealed its first case in July and Mali reported its first Ebola patient on

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopædia. Ebola. N/A: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2014. Web. 22 10 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1389918/Ebola>.

The concentration of political and economic relations in the big cities accelerated the virus spread from the small rural areas to crowded capitals like Monrovia and Freetown (Boseley, 2014). Ebola outbreaks happened in the past, however it never moved as fast because it never hit a large city. According to Dr. Chan (2014), director-general of the WHO, incidents are occurring in rural regions, which are difficult to reach, but also in highly populated cities where health systems are broken and control is beyond local resources (p.5). Thus, the most important factor in managing the fast-moving disease is a strong functioning medical framework that will be able to handle Ebola even in large populated

Chertow, D., Kleine, C., Edwards, J., Scaini, R., Giuliani, R., & Sprecher, A. (2014). Ebola virus disease in West Africa — Clinical manifestations and management. Retrieved November 25, 2014, from http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMp1413084

I n this paper I will be explaining the disease of Ebola and the frequency, incidence, prevalence, death rates, crude mortality rates, infant mortality rates. I also will be comparing the dieses occurrences, relative risks and also the attributable risks also.