Ebola is a rare disease that spreads to both human and non-human primates, through contact with bodily fluids. It has only been diagnosed four times in the United States. For the four cases that has been diagnosed in the United States, all have survived and have made a full recovery only weeks after first contracting Ebola. The one person who contracted overseas, in Liberia, passed away, as his case was found too late. There was no symptoms shown while leaving Liberia, but the individual started showing symptoms about for days after arriving to the United States. The question is not only what to do to fix this outbreak, but also what measures may be too extensive and unneeded. The United States, thus far, is doing a great job handling Ebola. …show more content…
(“Ebola Virus Disease” par. 9) These people need to be educated about how Ebola is spread and how to control it. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all healthcare workers keep a log of any people that have come into contact with a patient that may have Ebola, explaining what the worker did, and monitoring the health of the worker for 21 days, as that is how many days Ebola takes to start showing symptoms. (“Infection Prevention”) For those that do not work in healthcare, CDC recommends monitoring their health for 21 days, practicing careful hygiene, and avoiding burial ceremonies for those that have contracted Ebola, was well as other ways of prevention (“Prevention” ). Many of those, West Africans and Americans alike don’t know how to handle Ebola. While everyday citizens don’t always have to worry about contracting Ebola, those who need the information do need to be educated about the …show more content…
As of now, America has placed airline restrictions in five different airports. All passengers that are in the three affected countries, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, are screened before boarding an airplane to the United States. According to McCarthy, these screenings “include a series of questions involving health and possible Ebola exposure, have their temperatures taken with a non-contact thermometer, and be observed for symptoms.” (par. 5) This is a good protocol to ensure those on the airplane will not get affected,and to catch infected travelers in the earliest stages of Ebola when it is most treatable, further enhancing the chances of survival for the individual. Not only does this make the means of travel safer, but it almost prevents the spread of Ebola without having to go as far as closing the
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
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.
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
Ebola virus disease (EVD) policies globally has become a confusing and ongoing investigation among world governments and leaderships. The first diagnosis in America confirmed and made public by the Centers if Disease Control (CDC), was in Texas on September 20, 2014. The patient had developed symptoms around the fourth day after coming into the United States (CDC 2014). The patient had stated he did not pose any symptoms when he left West Africa. Upon falling ill, he went to a Texas hospital, and based upon the signs and symptoms he was presenting, the hospital performed a laboratory test. The test confirmed he was in fact positive for the virus, but to found in critical condition. Texas Presbyterian Hospital isolated the patient and unfortunately, the patient died from complications of the virus on October 8, 2014. As stated by DR. Tom Frieda (2014), Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “We will contact anyone we think has any likelihood of having had contact with the patient when he was infectious, starting with relatives he had been staying with” (para 2). Health officials stated that once contacts were identified, they would be monitored for 21 days, which is the incubation period for the virus, for any signs and symptoms of the infection. At that point, the person would be put into quarantine themselves (CDC 2014). The public remained uneasy and questioned what was going to be done to stop the virus
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
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.
In 2014, Center for Disease Control and Prevention diagnosed the first Ebola case in the United Stated, from a man in Dallas, Texas that came from Liberia. It came to the United States and in many ways it appears that the country was not ready for this kind of outbreak (CNN). CDC recognized the Ebola cases in the United States a lot of concerns were raised, and death is too many. In order to protect Medical Professionals and Public Health Professionals across the country, strategies and preparations with dedicated teams to undergo extensive training that would help reduce the chance of infection, and rigorous donning of personal protection equipment (PPE) training to ensure that it would stop spreading the disease. This research will outline
To prevent the spreading of Ebola virus you need to practice good hygiene such as
The last case of ebola was in April of 2016. This was in Guinea Africa. People are still worrying about the next ebola outbreak. They don’t want one bigger than the last one which affected 28,626 people which 11,310 died. I remember i was flying back into the U.S. from Canada once in 2014 and i had come down with a cold which later turned into the flu, in the customs area they noticed that I was sick and they looked worried, my dad told them to chill though because it was only a cold. Still the planes that go back and forth to other countries and the airports that host them were very concerned about letting someone sick back into the U.S.. Yet it happened. Dr.Craig Spencer the age of 33 who had just gotten back from being in Guinea, Africa went for a three mile run, bowling and rode the subway in New York, New York exposing people to what later became the first case of human ebola ever in the U.S.. Once they announced that they had their first case in the U.S. people became worried including me. Fortunately they had the tools and sanitation needed to just keep it to one person. Thankfully he survived
Since there is no preventative treatment for the Ebola virus currently and treatment is only experimental, we have to take careful measures in
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
Ebola is a very harmful disease. People have to take a lot of precautions to make sure that
Ebola has taken the lives of many in Africa and has made its journey to America. With America’s new fear of such a life threatening disease, hospitals, doctors’, and the Center for Disease Control, are taking special precautions to prevent further spread. This paper focuses on hospital preparedness and other precautions, including, decontamination and hospital safety. With hospitals being at the epicenter of disease control, it is important to know what they are doing to help prevent further spread. This paper will also touch upon travel bans and Ebola screening in airports that have been taken into effect. Having new protocols will help prevent