Moving to one of the 'cheerless' topics, the Ebola outbreak is an important one to consider. My post today briefly describes it, the disease's symptoms and what you can do to help if you're feeling charitable. This has been a terrible outbreak and its consequences severe; with its fatality rate of 60-70%, it has been extremely dangerous for those in the countries of West Africa where the outbreak has occured. It is, of course, important to realize that this has started almost a year ago and, while I do not wish to be the cynic, the media seemed to have only picked up on this issue recently once the virus had spread to a few aid workers from outside of West Africa. Whether this is due to race, to aid awareness of the very unlikely possibility of a pandemic crisis, or because people getting infected with Ebola outside of West Africa make for good, panic headlines, I cannot be sure. Regardless, this is a serious, ongoing issue, and the effects have been devastating on those who have been made victims to the virus.
The reason that the current Ebola outbreak has been
making headlines is due to the recent imported cases and two locally
acquired cases in healthcare workers reported in the United States. Secondary
infections of medical workers have also occurred in Spain and one case
identified in Mali. However, this
outbreak has been going on for almost a year in West African countries that
have had a reported case fatality rate of about 71 percent. It began in Guinea
in December 2013 and spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone, with a small outbreak
additionally in Nigeria and one case occurred in Senegal. Now the largest
epidemic in history, the World Health Organization reported that there have
been a total of 12,008 suspected cases and 5,078 deaths, however, this is
believed to understated figures. WHO have also warned that could be as many as
10,000 new cases every week by December 2014. Most recently, The Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC) has now reported cases of Ebola; however, these
cases are not related to the ongoing outbreak of Ebola in West Africa.
At the moment, Ebola is considered a
viral disease that has yet to have any licensed treatments or vaccines. When a
person is infected with the Ebola virus, their developing symptoms will
include: fever, headache, joint and muscle pain, sore throat and intense muscle
weakness. These symptoms would be followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, a rash and
bleeding both internal and external which can be seen in the gums, eyes, nose
and in stool. Patients tend to die from dehydration and multiple organ failure.
These symptoms will occur suddenly between two and twenty-one days after
becoming infected. It is absolutely necessary that any one experiencing these
symptoms within twenty-one days of coming back from Guinea, Liberia or Sierra
Leone should stay at home and telephone 111 or 999 and explain your
circumstances so necessary arrangements can take place to determine the cause
of the illness. This is followed by
vomiting, diarrhoea, a rash and bleeding - both internal and external - which can
be seen in the gums, eyes, nose and in the stools.
When people begin to experience the
symptoms, it is then that they become infectious to others. People become infected
with the Ebola virus when they come into contact with the blood, body fluids or
organs of an infected person. The majority of people that are infected are when
giving care to other infected people, either by directly touching the patient’s
body or by cleaning up body fluids (stools, urine or vomit) that carry
infectious blood. Consequently, hospital workers, laboratory workers and family
members are at greatest risk.
While there is currently no licensed
treatment or vaccine for Ebola virus disease, there are potential new vaccines
and drug therapies are being developed and tested. Patients at the moment
infected with Ebola are placed in isolation where their blood oxygen levels and
blood pressure are maintained at the right level and their body organs
supported. ZMapp is an experimental treatment that can be tried; a product that
is a combination of three different antibodies that bind to the protein of the
Ebola virus. However, it has not yet been tested in humans for safety or effectiveness.
One of the ways that you can help
with the prevention of the spread of the deadly vis currently devastating the
lives of people in West Africa, donate to the Ebola Crisis Appeal at Act!onaid
whose teams are currently helping 271,000 people fight the disease which can
pay for cleaning and disinfectant materials for families, buy personal protective
equipment for volunteers and training the community on how to keep themselves
safe and stop the spread of Ebola. Donations to help raise funds of these
materials can also be made at Red Cross, International Medical Corps UK,
Christian Aid and many more charities tackling the outbreak and contain it.
Sources
Donations
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