The Attack Of Legionnaires Disease

In African hospitals they often don’t use protective gear like masks, gloves, or gowns. When needles are used they may not be disposable or they might not be sterilized. Ebola is a biosafety level four virus. Biosafety level four is the highest level, and contain dangerous diseases that are possibly life threatening.

It is not an airborne bacterium nor can it be transmitted from person to person. The elderly and any individual that has pre-existing respiratory conditions, chronic lung disease, smoke have asthma, or are fifty years of age or older are at a higher risk of death if diagnosed with this disease. The bacteria or bacterium, Legionella enters and is transmitted through the lungs from either inhalation of aerosolized contaminated soil and/or water or by aspirating contaminated water. Legionnaires’ disease can lead to life-threatening complications such as; respiratory failure, septic shock, acute kidney failure and even

People can recover from Legionnaires’, but 5% - 30% die. The most likely people to die by the disease are the elderlies and people with underlying medical problems. The disease is not spread by person to person, but through the air.

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

Cultural Practices: The burial traditions of the villagers in the West African Countries of Guinea and Sierra Leone exposed and infected a multitude of people. In the documentary, “Outbreak”, it was described that when a person died (the famous healer) the family and friends of the person would clean the body themselves without taking any precautions and during the burial people would often touch the dead body. This is said to be done to prevent the soul of the person for haunting the village. When a person is dead their bodies decomposes and excretes bodily fluids. In the case of a death resulting from Ebola this make a dead body highly infectious, thus exposing those who encountered the dead body to Ebola and subsequent infection.

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

The filovirus family encompasses two genera: Ebolavirus and Marburgvirus; note that filoviruses are zoonotic, and have recently been traced to some species of African bats (CDC 2014). Currently, there are four species of ebolavirus that cause disease in humans: Ebola virus, Sudan virus, Tai Forest virus, and Bundibugyo virus (CDC 2015 B, 1). For the purposes of this scenario, Ebola virus will be the agent of focus and use. Symptoms of Ebola virus infection range from common illness characteristics, such as fever and fatigue, to the more detrimental characteristics of unexplained bleeding, vomiting, diarrhea, and body pains; symptoms can appear anywhere from two days to three weeks after exposure (CDC 2015 B, 1). Transmission of infection occurs through direct contact between an individual’s mucous membranes or broken skin and body fluids of an infected person (CDC 2015 A). Body fluids can include sweat, saliva, blood, semen, and urine, amongst several others. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated that “Although … the viruses display some capability of infection through small-particle aerosols, airborne spread among humans has not been clearly demonstrated”

A new form of pneumonia, called Legionnaire’s Disease claimed the lives of 34 people who attended a convention in Philadelphia while 221 others became infected.

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 first known outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease was in 1976 after the American Legion conference in Philadelphia Pennsylvania—from which it receives its name (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). According to a New York Times article, when the “Philly Killer”, as it was termed at the time, hit Pennsylvania, no one had previously seen this disease. In addition to Legionnaires’ disease erupting at this time, a new strain of influenza had emerged and Americans feared an epidemic. After six long months, 221 cases and 34 deaths, the “Philly Killer” was pinned on the bacteria Legionella pneumophila, which was spread through the air conditioning system of the conventions’ hotel. (Altman, 2006)

Almost 40 years ago, Legionella pneumophila was initially recognized as the cause of a major respiratory outbreak among attendees of an American Legion convention at a hotel in Philadelphia.4 Since the first description of Legionnaire’s disease, surveillance schemes have been implemented in several countries including the United

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

A poignant example made headlines this month when an outbreak of legionnaires’ disease infected Disneyland visitors in Anaheim, California. The Happiest Place on Earth had to shut down two cooling towers after twelve people contacted the illness, nine of which had visited the park in September, according to the Los Angeles Times. The other cases were people who lived or traveled in Anaheim. In total, 10 people were hospitalized and one person who had not visited Disneyland died.

Although there is not a scientific or natural cure found yet, there are some methods that can increase a person’s chance of survival if contracted with the virus. First, supportive care could help physically and even more psychologically. Studies on blood samples have shown that there is an identification between genes and the prediction of survival. Also, there is a new association between survival and levels of a certain protein in platelets. This protein helps to repair damaged blood vessels. Certain levels of this protein could determine the chances of survival of an infected person. Scientists are also trying to develop a cure by utilizing the benefits of this protein. Currently, there are 2 possible vaccines that are being tested to see if they will prevent the virus.

There is no specific treatment or cure for the Ebola virus. Given it has about a 90% death rate, and this is really, really high. The treatment that is given involves intensive nursing to replace lost body fluids and to prevent shock, renal failure, depletion of blood pressure. Mixing plasma and whole blood have been used but there were no appropriate clinical trials, so their effectiveness is unknown.