EBOLA, What next?
The recent Ebola breakout is the worst recorded in history and also the first to occur in West Africa where it is currently having its largest effect. The center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), The World Health Organization (WHO), and other domestic and international health agencies are continuing to work together to control the outbreak and prevent the spreading of the disease to other areas around the globe. Teams of doctors and other health experts have been deployed throughout West Africa and are doing their best to treat the victims of this deadly disease. New drug therapies are currently being developed to attempt to treat the disease as well as a vaccine that would be able to prevent an individual from contracting the disease altogether.
The Ebola virus is extremely dangerous when it makes its way into humans and other mammals. The main symptom of the virus is a hemorrhagic fever, often leading to excessive bleeding and skyrocketed body temperature and eventually shock and death. The average mortality rate for those infected with the virus is about 83%, though fatality rates of up to 90% have been recorded during certain outbreaks. The CDC dictates biosafety levels to all dangerous biological agents, such as viruses, that state the level of biocontainment precautions that must be taken to isolated a dangerous agent. These levels range from BSL-1 to BSL-4, 4 being the highest level of containment necessary. Due to the severity of fatality rates associated with the disease, the Ebola virus is ranked at BSL-4.
This recent outbreak began in December of 2013 and as of September 10, 2014, WHO as recorded an approximate total of 2375 deaths, but also claims that this number is underestimated due to widespread reluctance in West Africa to report cases. This is because the people of Western Africa have many different beliefs in terms of the cause of the disease, including just saying “Ebola” out loud. These beliefs in combination with their natural skepticism of these foreign physicians have made it difficult to communicate and aid the people in need. It is especially difficult to reduce the mortality rates in these areas because they did not have the proper health systems in place before the outbreak even occurred to prepare for anything of this magnitude. This figure below puts the severity of this outbreak into a visual perspective:
Source: www.nytimes.com
Contrary to the rumors spread, Ebola does not pose any major threat to the United States. According to the CDC, as of August 28th, there have been zero cases of the disease reported in the US. Two American aid workers were infected with the virus while working in West Africa and are currently being treated in a high-level containment unit in Atlanta. As Ebola spreads mainly through direct contact with bodily fluid rather than being an airborne illness, experts say it is highly unlikely that anyone in the United States will contract the deadly virus.
There are many steps that need to be taken in order for this epidemic to be ended and many professionals working on doing this say it may take months before we are able to get an upper hand on the situation. The most important thing to do at this point is educate others and ourselves about the disease and the epidemic. You can read more about the recent outbreak through the sources listed below: