Sierra Leone : The Area Highest Hit By Ebola

Historically Ebola has had a serious impact on human health and hygiene and still does due to the fact of no vaccine or treatment being discovered, but thanks to improvements in scientific and medical knowledge the virus itself is now controllable.

Currently, Ebola is mainly being spread in West Africa. So far, about 4,000 to 5,000 people have been infected with Ebola. Ebola is spreading throughout West Africa because of the hygiene and culture in the countries in that region. “To stop the spread of Ebola, the World Health Organization is coordinating the construction and staffing of treatment centers across Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.” -New York Times.

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.

The whole world is at edge knowing that Ebola is a very lethal virus and it is very tough to treat and cure an infected person. But it has been seen that in countries were level of development is higher and health care is easily reached this disease can be fought.

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.

Sierra Leone endured a three-day lockdown. The lockdown forced the people to stay in their homes, and permitted them from moving about the country. During this time, Houses were searched and 130 new cases of Ebola were found. The Ebola virus can have a mortality rate up to 90%, which is greatly affecting Sierra Leones population of 6.1 million people.

Ebola was first recognized in 1976 as the cause of outbreaks of disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then known as Zaire) and in Sudan. About three hundred people in each of the two nations were infected with the virus, resulting in a mortality rate of 88% in Zaire, and 53% in Sudan (Bulletin of the WHO 1978). The disease as it was discovered spread through direct contact of unmans to humans, and then thought, from non-human primates to humans. The epidemic was a result of unsafe and unsanitary hospital practices, and non-sterilized medical equipment. The disease was then contained, however sporadic outbreaks of the Zaire and Sudan Ebola subtypes have risen in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Uganda, and Sudan; one of the latest outbreaks was in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in September of 2007.

The spread of some of these life threatening diseases can be contained if people took the necessary precautions. First and foremost, the people of this country have to be sure they’re educated on at least the basics of different health issue common in Sierra Leone. They should be able to identify high risk environment of contraction, and symptoms so the viruses can be caught in their earliest stage. Not getting tested is also a problem contributing to the spreads. Getting tested regularly and as soon as possible could affect the persons and the people around them life. These diseases have a major impact on people's lives while they're infected, and if they can be cured, their life is still changed after. One man talked about how he was cured of ebola but now everyone treats him differently. No one want to be around him or touch him afraid they’ll catch the disease that he no longer

“The disease spread like wildfire” (Osterath). As the year 2014 went along more and more people knew that Ebola was as serious of a disease as any. Ebola started in Sierra Leone a country in West Africa. The first case was recorded in March 23, 2014 “It was the largest and longest ebola outbreak in history” (Osterath). The disease itself is relatively old as it was first seen in 1976 in the country of Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ebola comes from people eating wild animals like bats and monkeys who are the natural carrier of the disease. The disease is most commonly transmitted by blood and other bodily fluids.The Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone was one of the worst outbreaks in history. Ebola killed thousands of people and left the country and its people in a constant state of chaos.

The country's development is limited and is generally restricted to the capital city. The recent outbreak of the disease Ebola clearly demonstrated the lack of health and resources. Ebola, though contagious, can be easily contained by the sufficient sanitation and health resources. There were 13 250 cases of Ebola reported with 3 949 deaths. In Sierra Leone, there is no proper hospital outside the capital city and 136 doctors for the entire population. The low level of development in Sierra Leone was only worsened by the Ebola outbreak and restricted any improvements that the country may have made after the civil war.

There has recently been a death from the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone only a few hours after it was reported that the outbreak was over in West Africa. Someone got sick at a small town near Guinea and health officials are looking for people that could have been near the infected person. This was right after the World Health Organization told us Ebola was over and Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea had each stopped the “chain of transmission” all at the same time for the first time and this was a huge deal because it meant all three nations that experienced Ebola at its worst had reported zero cases for more than 42 days. But despite supposedly being Ebola free it was important to be very cautious.

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

The Ebola spread from Guinea to Liberia and Sierra Leone after the announcement from both HealthMap and WHO highlighted the lack of tools, infrastructure and resources available in West Africa, charity organisations and other health and government agencies began researching information on Ebola and the current medical products and technologies available and proceeded to plan financial requirements to consider the purchasing of essential resources and the possibility of patient payment methods (Shoman, Karafillakis, & Rawaf, 2017). During this investigating stage many researchers began to conclude how the Ebola outbreak occurred which was attributed to poor surveillance, language barriers causing poor communication and limited public health

Even other areas are being affected by the outbreak as well. A basketball team caught the virus in a tournament. The virus only had one fatality being the coach. It’s a sad thing and they can’t do much about it but hope that it doesn’t kill to many people.