The Ebola Outbreak

www.vox.com

Last spring, the prediction was that this Ebola outbreak in West Africa would be over by the end of the summer. Now, it is the deadliest outbreak in history, which has lasted longer and spread further than anyone could have predicted vox.com.


The devastating Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 800 people in West Africa has sparked fear in the United States and around the world. While a certain level of panic is understandable, because we’re talking about an incredibly fatal disease that theoretically could have been carried by an untold number of people traveling to an unknown number of countries, experts say that people in the U.S. should not be particularly concerned about contracting the virus. We are highly developed and have tools and resources to contain the virus. Also, a lot of people in West Africa bury their corpse which is another method of contracting the virus.

What is Ebola?

Ebola is a fatal virus disease that is transmitted through direct contact with infectious blood and/or secretions with open skin areas or mucous membranes such as cuts or inside your mouth or eyes. It does not have a cure at this time but treatment strategies are in place. This outbreak is throughout the news and is probably scaring people. Well let me tell you what you need to know and how to stay as far away from the outbreak as possible.

Signs and Symptoms

Ebola is a severe acute viral illness often characterized by the sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding. Laboratory findings include low white blood cell and platelet counts and elevated liver enzymes.

The incubation period, the time interval from infection with the virus to onset of symptoms, is 2 to 21 days.

Ebola Cases in U.S.

In recent news, the virus was said to have spread to the U.S. There were only two confirmed cases thus far and they were Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol. They were brought home from contracting the virus when helping Ebola patients in Liberia. They were flown here in an air ambulance and admitted to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. Brantly and Writebol were both placed in specialized isolated rooms built for infectious diseases through the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Subsequently, both of them received experimental treatment and began to improve. They will remain in isolation until further treatment and tests confirm the virus is no longer in their systems. “There is zero danger to the U.S. public from these [two] cases or the Ebola outbreak in general,” Amesh Adalja, a member of the public health committee of the Infectious Disease Society of America and an infectious disease doctor at the University of Pittsburgh (Washington Post). Other people were suspected to have Ebola in the U.S. who were traveling over in the countries where the outbreak is such as Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone but none of those cases were confirmed. THERE IS A TRAVELING WARNING discouraging all travelers to avoid these outbreak areas at all costs.

The Worst-Case Scenario

Even if the outbreak didn't move across any other country border, intensification within the already affected areas is the most immediate health threat.

"The worst-case scenario is that the disease will continue to bubble on, like a persistent bushfire, never quite doused out," said Derek Gatherer, a Lancaster University bioinformatician who has studied the evolution of this Ebola outbreak. "It may start to approach endemic status in some of the worst affected regions. This would have very debilitating effects on the economies of the affected countries and West Africa in general."

On a lighter note, these infectious-disease specialists also point out that a whole host of other nasty bugs and illnesses have made their way into the U.S. several times in recent years, and there have not been any problems involving these viruses spreading (Washington Post).



What are your thoughts on this outbreak? Do you have any strategies to eradicate or eliminate the disease? I want to hear your thoughts…