Misconceptions About Ebola Virus Disease

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, Ebola hemorrhagic fever caused an outbreak in West Africa that officially ended in 2016. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says, “Ebola is a rare and deadly disease caused by infection with one of the Ebola virus species” (“Ebola (Ebola Virus Disease)”). Ebola is caused when a person is in contact with an infected person’s blood or other body fluids. Prevention of contracting the disease include, not touching the dead body of an infected person, not touching body fluids of an infected person, avoiding places infected people are being treated, not touching bats or nonhuman primates

First discovered in the 1970’s, the ebola virus was contained to West Africa (“About Ebola Virus Disease”). Villagers’ diets consisted primarily of the resources readily available. Among these resources were fruit, vegetables, and animals, namely monkeys. Monkeys carried the ebola virus, and when people ate them, without proper cleaning and cooking techniques, they became infected. Ebola, formally known as Zaire Ebola Virus, is transmitted through bodily fluids like saliva, blood, semen, breast milk, mucus, sweat, tears, feces and urine. ("Ebola in West Africa."). Since it was introduced to a third world country, where hygiene is not regarded as important as survival. Without education, protection and segregated sewage, the virus began to spread. In days people were dying after spreading the virus to those closest to them (Waterman). The bodies, though dead, were still harboring the virus and

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

While Ebola is not an airborne virus, it can be transmitted through direct contact with an infected person’s fluids, such as blood, urine, vomit, sweat, semen and sexual contact (Nevins, 2014). With these deadly symptoms and ease of transmission, the Ebola virus can quickly wipe out an entire community. Yet, scientists have found that the severity of the disease in humans varies widely, from rapid fatality to mild illness or even asymptomatic response, further complicating the ability to quickly identify infected patients and reduce the possibility of transmission (Kolata, 2014). Moreover, the virus has different strains and mutates according to the specific environmental conditions in which it exists (Peters et al., 1991).

Therefore we ask ourselves, why is it important to discuss the Ebola virus? The answer is simple; because we need to know how the disease infects humans, and how researchers and medical professionals can prevent the virus from entering the organism. It is important to know that humans are not the host organism, or Ebola's natural reservoir; humans simply become infected when they come in contact with the infected host, such as non-human primate, pigs, or even insects.

Transmission of the Ebola virus is often through physical contact with infected persons, the Ebola virus can inhabit many bodily fluids such as blood, stool, urine, saliva, and semen. These fluids can form into droplets and can be transmitted through the air. Since it is known that the Ebola virus can be found within semen, it has long been questioned if Ebola Virus Disease can be sexually transmitted. The likelihood of the Ebola virus to be sexually transmitted is low, although there is the possibility of male to female transmission. In Liberia, an unnamed woman was discovered to have the

Americans originally assumed that the only way to have contact with Ebola was by bodily fluids, until scientists discovered that the pathogen was mutating into new strains, which would allow the virus to travel airborne. This meant that an airborne disease could be caused by the contaminated patient through his/her coughing, external wounds that would be treated improperly, and sneezing at public areas. As a result, Americans

There is a lot of conjecture about whether or not the virus is spread through the air. A different theory on the spread of the infection is from the blog, Ebola, A Nurse’s Perspective, “… if patient A is infectious/contagious, they sneeze on patient B, but then patient B goes home and picks up their sisters 16 month old, who rubs his face, and licks all over your shoulder, he could very well have just orally consumed large quantities of the virus, therefore become patient C. Patient B never got sick, the virus never entered their system, yet they are responsible for spreading the virus to someone

The article states that there are hardly any patients who have contracted the Ebola virus and the few that are suspected to have the virus tested negative for the disease. Because there is no patient with the Ebola virus, the International Medical Corps treatment unit beds are empty. "The Ebola virus disease (EVD) first appeared in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks, one in Nzara, Sudan, and the other in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo, the latter occurred in a village near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name" Ebola virus disease (n.d.). Since the virus has started spreading to several different countries, some people started to panic while some people believe that the CDC have it under control and that they are taking

The public has been creating myths and has been taking the Ebola Virus Disease for a joke. According to the Ebola Virus Disease Information for NIH Clinical Center Staff, they have cleared up the chaos of confusion on information about the Ebola Virus Disease. Ebola virus spreads in humans by direct contact with blood or body fluids from an infected person, contact with the body who is recently deceased or through exposure to objects that have been contaminated with infected body fluids or secretions. “You cannot contract the virus from a deceased person”, after an infected person dies, the virus still may be active in their body. The body Dealing with the body ceremonially, to prepare for a funeral, handlers should use great caution. “The Ebola virus is airborne”, the virus is spread through body fluids. “You won’t get Ebola if you’re healthy with a healthy immune system”; the Ebola virus can attack ANY strong/healthy immune system. “The Ebola virus is no sexually transmitted”, it is passed through the exchange of bodily fluids, and this includes semen. It also includes saliva. “There is a cure to the Ebola virus”, unfortunately no cure has yet been

Only humans, bats, monkeys, and apes have been confirmed as having the ability to become infected with Ebolavirus. As of yet, it is unknown whether or not Ebola is sexually transmittable, though traces of Ebola can survive in the semen of male victims of the infection who have recovered. Many people worry about the possibility of the virus becoming airborne, but airborne transmission from human to human hasn’t been reported. There have also been no recorded cases of mosquitoes or other insects being carriers of Ebolavirus.

THIRD POINT: There is no FDA approved vaccine currently available for Ebola. It is very important that everyone practices careful hygiene. Always wash hands with soap and

Because the most common form of infection remains direct contact with bodily fluids (Bardi, 2002), it has been suggested Ebola infected human when hunters came in to contact with infected primate carcasses. During the first outbreak, with little knowledge of the mode of infection, home caregivers and hospital staff became the next line of victims. Secondary transmission also occurred in hospital where unsterilized needles and syringes were reused. The only recorded case in Brittan occurred as a result from accidental laboratory infection.