Treatment for Ebola Essay

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.

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

The infected person should be in separated from other people. All equipment, medical waste, patient waste and surfaces that may have come into contact with body fluids need to be disinfected. During the 2014 outbreak, kits were put together to help families treat Ebola disease in their homes, which include protective clothing as well as chlorine powder and other cleaning supplies. Education of those who provide care in these techniques, and the establishment of such barrier-separation supplies has been a priority of Doctors without Borders.

The Ebola virus is deadly, but it will become a major threat to humanity if and only if it becomes airborne and a vaccine is not developed.

More active disease surveillance needs to occur. This means that health care workers should be encouraged to document and report those they think have been exposed and their contacts. In more effectively reporting suspected cases, Ebola response teams are better able to promptly follow-up, transfer to isolation centers, and assess the scope of the epidemic (Matua, Van der Wal, & Locsin,

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.

The standard treatment for Ebola is still limited to supportive therapy as no vaccines are yet available for clinical use. The supportive therapy consists of balancing the patient’s fluids and electrolytes, maintaining the patient’s oxygen status and blood pressure, and treating the patient for any complicating infections. Treatment from the day the virus is contracted is important but extremely challenging due to the fact that Ebola is very difficult to diagnose in its early stages of infection. However, if a person has the early symptoms of Ebola and there is reason to believe that Ebola should be considered it is extremely important that the patient is isolated

Ebola has been around for quite awhile. There's been multiple outbreaks of the Ebola virus throughout the years. The most recent outbreak happens to be going on right now, it's spreading throughout New Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone (Rupp). This outbreak is considered to be the biggest yet, thousands of deaths have occurred in this recent outbreak. Since the number of deaths Ebola has caused is huge many people are afraid that it'll eventually kill off the human race, but there are many factors that make it obvious that Ebola isn't going to kill off every single human. The Ebola Virus will not end the human race because it can be treated, it is only contagious through bodily fluids, and most countries have advanced medical facilities to treat Ebola.

Ebola is the global killer and communicable disease of the world with 69 % case fatality rate, whereas only Zaire strain virus has 90% case fatality rate. It attacks Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, especially the west African’s region as

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

In class we got a chance to discuss Ebola in the US and in Africa. As known, the US certainly have less cases and deaths due to Ebola in comparison to countries all over Africa. In terms of the reading in addition to the lecture by Haneefa Saleem, the class learned about what is the Ebola virus and its history, the affect it has on a person and their community in addition to how the world has perceived this virus. Thankfully, the US does not have to go through the effects of living in an Ebola epidemic because of the certain precautions taken when a case arise and the steps taken further for primary and secondary prevention. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Africa. There are always new cases of Ebola arises in different parts of Africa and it still continues to be a threat

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

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

Since there is no  preventative treatment for the Ebola virus currently and treatment is only experimental, we have to take careful measures in