Where Are Regulations Regarding Ebola?

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.

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

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.

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

The Ebola virus is in danger of spreading rapidly in the United States. A report on the New York Times website, written by Kevin Sack, has revealed the fact that Ebola has spread from person to person at a Texas hospital. In order to protect the citizens of the United States, a prompt and quick lock down of the entire state of Texas in needed and necessary in order to protect the United States.

A clear and concise strategy that’s understandable and acceptable to the patient and public would be extremely beneficial when attempting to implement quarantine. It can be assumed that one may be resistant to being quarantined because; they may only understand that they will not be allowed to access the public for a specific number of days. Revamping the quarantine process in a way that explains that they may experience a faster recovery when quarantined; and if left to access the public they may also experience a reaction that is equivalent to being quarantined. Explaining that Ebola is a highly infectious and deadly disease, which is commonly spread through human-to-human contact, and that when people are treated outside the hospital,

The 2014 epidemic acknowledged as the “Ebola Outbreak”, is the leading, most widespread, disease recorded in history. Ebola is a virulent, lethal disease, evident by fever, and severe internal bleeding. It is spread through the contact of infected body fluid. Symptoms include fever, body weakness, muscle pain, headache, and sore throat. Ebola fever has been recently discovered wiping out large populations in multiple countries all throughout West Africa. On September 30, 2014, CDC confirmed the first travel-associated case of Ebola in the United States. Because of the uncontrolled outbreak, the CDC and partners were taking precautions to stagnate the spread of the Ebola virus throughout the United States. Cases have

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

Background Information: Diseases have emerged and reemerged throughout history, claiming thousands of lives. The infectious and/or contagious nature of a disease allows for its rapid spread throughout a population, and thus, able to escalate quickly and claim a large portion of the population before they are contained. Diseases such as Ebola or AIDS are usually fatal, and their lack of available treatment fill people with dread and fear. The most recent outbreak of Ebola in 2014 experienced by the South African countries, especially Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, is the largest Ebola outbreak in history (Frieden, T. R., Damon, I., Bell, B. P., Kenyon, T., & Nichol, S. 2014).. This virus has claimed the lives of 70 % of the people that

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

Thwarting an infectious disease from getting out of control necessitates efforts that identify it as soon as it first presents itself. The Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) claimed its first victims as early as December 2013 in West Africa yet was never suspected until later around February 2014. This is because EVD had never been seen in West Africa. Since its discovery, the virus that causes the disease had only been virulent in sporadic outbreaks elsewhere in Africa –specifically the DRC (1995 and 2012) and in Uganda (2000 and 2008)1 both countries miles away with no shared boundaries. Patients infected with EVD typically initially present with nonspecific symptoms such as fever, vomiting, and severe diarrhea, with visible hemorrhage occurring

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.