Ebola Outbreak

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 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.

Hey! So I was reading this essay in the book that I bought for my English 101 class about how the horrible stuff you see on the news is COMPLETELY blown out of proportion sometimes and I just thought, “Wow, that’s completely true.” ‘Cause sometimes it’s just ridiculous! Like a couple years ago when there was that Ebola crisis and people TOTALLY freaked out! In reality, not many people in America got it and yet SO MANY PEOPLE were afraid of getting it. Like, what the hell? That’s stupid. People can be worried about the people who ARE getting it, but to actually think you’d contract it yourself is completely unrealistic! People seriously need to calm down.

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.

As with any infectious disease, whether it originates from a virus, bacterium, or fungi, there is the possibility that it will become an epidemic. For centuries, deadly diseases have threatened to infect and possibly eradicate mankind. The Ebola virus, which causes an extremely fatal hemorrhagic fever, is considered to be one of the most aggressive contagions in the world. The Ebola virus is a member of a family of RNA viruses known as, “Filoviridae” and is composed of multiple distinct subspecies (Bausch et al. 2007). It causes Ebola Virus Disease, a fairly new disease that plagues multiple poor countries within Africa. The virus mainly attacks the lymphatic system, but also severely damages the reproductive and reticuloendothelial systems. The Ebola virus disease causes muscle pain, weakness, limited kidney and liver function and extreme blood loss due to failure of blood clotting.

At the beginning of the article, the map demonstrates through shading, that the disease stems from Nigeria, Senegal, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. West Africa has a current Ebola outbreak in 2014. Obviously America does not want this disease present in America. The CDC (Center of Disease Control) is helping sort out this situation. The main goal of the CDC, as the text implies, is to help countries all over the world with multiple diseases to prevent the certain disease from spreading. Through the beginning of this program multiple countries have been saved, killing off this disease at its core. Although it is hard for the CDC to stop the disease in this specific situation. According to the article, many Ebola cases could have been prevented through less human involvement with animals. Animals have been spreading Ebola to people through physical encounters with them. Human encounters with animals have spread Ebola through open wounds, or touching slobber. Once interactions with an unsanitary animal occurs, people might start showing Ebola

The last Ebola outbreak was merely a year ago. This tragedy is fresh; I remember watching the news in fear that Ebola would come to America…until it did. First in Texas then again when two American doctors were flown from Africa to Emory. The idea of Ebola being in my back yard was absolutely terrifying! I couldn’t stop imagining what I’m going to do when I’m a medical student and a biohazard level four patient is in the same hospital as me.

Every time you turn on the news or pick up a newspaper, there is something being reported about the spread of Ebola. The Ebola outbreaks occurring in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia are growing larger and larger. This is the largest outbreak with more cases and deaths since Ebola was first discovered nearly four decades ago. United States doctors and missionaries have traveled to these countries to help treat infected people. However, there have now been cases where U.S. citizens have contracted the disease and have been brought back to the United States to be treated. This has caused raised concerns about the disease spreading in the U.S. as well. The physical, cultural, economic, political and religious geography of Africa have all played

(National Geographic)” Also, healthcare workers could potentially not want to go to Africa to help if they are going to be quarantined on arrival back in their home country. Frieden says, “health care workers might be unwilling to help out in West Africa, making it more likely the disease will keep landing on American shores. (National Geographic)” Over the short term, some cases of Ebola in the united states could be prevented, CNN states, but for the long term, it could back fire if highly trained personnel have more incentive not to go to west Africa to help with the disease. Dr. John Carlson spent four weeks working with Ebola patients and says that, “healthcare workers already sacrifice their time to those who need it, and that quarantining them might seem like a punishment, discouraging people like him to do it again. (CNN)” Some individuals also claim that Ebola is no worse than other illnesses, such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV, or bacterial infections. They claim that at one point in time these illnesses had once sparked a fire of fear in hearts of people around the world and that today are looked at as not as serious when people are still also affected by these diseases daily and also die from them daily.

Dr. Kent Brantly, one of two American aid workers who had contracted Ebola on a trip to Africa, was released from the hospital on August 21. He thanked God for surviving the ordeal and urged people to pray for an end to the deadly epidemic, stating, “Please do not stop praying for the people of West Africa.” The other American Ebola patient, Missionary Nancy Writebol, was released on August 19. The two are weak but no longer contagious and should expect a full recovery.

the Ebola outbreak could have been contained, but due to a political transition in the Democratic Republic of Congo, that was explained by the “interruption of international cooperation, inadequate disease surveillance and reporting, and a breakdown of the general health care infrastructure, due in part to a lack of motivation among poorly paid health

The ebola virus disease is a deathly illness first discovered in the late twentieth century. This disease is viral, spreading from human to human through any bodily fluid contact. Due to this process infection, it is easy enough to become unprotected and cause a mass-distribution of the disease among the human populace. Regretfully, this disease had gone undetected within West Africa until March of 2014, when it had branched off from just the one country Guinea to four of its surrounding countries. This probes as one of the world’s newest health issues since there is no vaccine to prevent this disease from sweeping across the rest of nation and infecting us all.

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

Imagine being isolated from your friends and family, suffering from an illness that feels as though something is burning through your body, while watching people around you dying of the same illness and wondering when it will be your turn to proverbially “kick the bucket”. For many survivors of the Ebola disease, this situation would be far too familiar. In March 2014, the Ebola virus outbreak began in West Africa, mainly in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. According to a recent figure from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been a total of 28616 Ebola cases and 11310 deaths from Ebola in these three countries (2014). There were many unpalatable symptoms of the disease, such as “fever, headache, joint and muscle pain, widespread bleeding, diarrhea and other physical symptoms leading to high mortality” (Van Bortel). If one is lucky enough to survive this virus, however, there are just as many negative results of the virus as there were symptoms. Many West African survivors have to deal with their new negative image, negative lasting health effects, or a decrease in financial stability due to their inability to work or find work after they recover. Now that the West African Ebola epidemic is over, (Liberia) there remains the task of assimilating the survivors back into their societies. Moreover, the best solution to counteract the effects of the Ebola virus on survivors is to expand upon the Ebola-survivor-support organizations already in place.

In March 2014, the Ministry of Health in Guinea notified the Africa Regional Office of the World Health Organization of a new outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease [EVD]. As of December 2, 2014, this recent Ebola outbreak has seen 10,708 confirmed infections and 6,055 deaths, with the hardest hit countries being West African countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2014a). The World Health Organization officially called the West African Ebola outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention