Running Header: THE EBOLA CASE IN WEST AFRICA: A CONCERN FOR WORLD

HEALTH

The Ebola Case in West Africa: A Concern for World Health

Benjamin D. Poole
Professor Oladimeji Aborisade
University of Charlotte North Carolina
October 23, 2014

Running Header: THE EBOLA CASE IN WEST AFRICA: A CONCERN FOR WORLD
HEALTH
Abstract
Ebola is a dangerous disease and something that has recently just started to blowup
around the world. Im here to talk about important questions that you might have about Ebola
and what is being done about it. All the information from what Ebola is to what is happening in
Africa and what is being done by the world will be talked about. Ebola is not something that
should not be taken lightly, like it was at the beginning of the outbreak. Information is one of the
best ways to fight a disease. If you prevent it from spreading you dont have to deal with it and
one of the best ways to prevent it from spreading is educating the public on the disease.

Running Header: THE EBOLA CASE IN WEST AFRICA: A CONCERN FOR WORLD
HEALTH
The Ebola Case in West Africa: A Concern for World Health
What is Ebola? Well, Ebola use to be known as the Ebola haemorrhagic fever and often
causes death. The virus takes about 2 to 21 days before you start to show symptoms and you can
only spread the disease once you show symptoms (WHO, 2014). It can only be spread through
bodily fluids such as blood and secretions. The first symptoms are sudden fever, fatigue, muscle
pain, headache and a sore throat (WHO, 2014). This is then followed by vomiting, diarrhea,
rashes, impaired kidney and liver functions and sometimes internal bleeding (WHO, 2014). The
fatality rate is currently 50% but has varied from 10% to 90% in the past (WHO, 2014). The
only treatment right now is rehydration with fluids and treatment of certain symptoms. There are
currently now licensed vaccines but there are two potential ones in the works. Now that we know
a little about how Ebola works we can explore further into the problems it is causing in the world
today.
Ebola has recently appeared and rapidly infected in people in Africa. The infectious
disease took hold in Guinea and quickly spread to neighboring counties such as Sierar Leone,
Senegal and Liberia. Cases also started to pop up around Nigeria and the D.R.C. (Democratic
Republic of the Congo). The current center point of the epidemic is currently Liberia with over
3,000 cases of Ebola and half of those causing fatalities (WHO, 2014). In Africa alone the
infectious disease has killed more than 3,860 people (BBC, 2014). How does a disease like this
get out of hand? The reason for such an explosion of an outbreak is due to the poor living
conditions and health care in Africa. Also the world has ignored the warnings from aid groups
that have known about the disease for a while. A combination of these two things has led to
Africa being a breeding ground for this terrible diseases.

Running Header: THE EBOLA CASE IN WEST AFRICA: A CONCERN FOR WORLD
HEALTH
Lets go back and cover Africas poor living conditions and health care. The hospitals in
Africa are being over ran with patients. If you have been confirmed to have to disease or show
symptoms like Ebola you a put into a hospital. The only problem is all the hospitals and foreign
aid builds have been completely filled up. This leaves all the people who are still infected with
Ebola dyeing on the streets and spreading the disease. People are also extremely confused on
what to do since they can be put in hospitals. Many of the people that are rejected head back to
their communities only to spread the disease. Communication between the government and
African people is also next to nothing. This is only leading to more confusing and chaos.
Africas ability to contain the disease is beyond their capability and they know it. The health
care that they have is almost close to nothing, if not nothing. The amount of the doctors and
nurses and the materials they have is not even half of what a developed country has. They
simply lack the proper and basics resources needed to prevent and contain this disease.
So, what is the world doing about this? To start off the US has sent 3,000 troops to West
Africa to help lead the fight against Ebola (Taylor, 2014). They have also sent 100
representatives from the center of disease control (Taylor, 2014). Many other countries such as
China, the UK and Canada are also sending over medical experts in order to help fight Ebola.
Along with sending people most nations have started to send medical supplies and money to help
support the nations in West Africa in their fight against Ebola. Many NGOs have also been
sending help in the form of supplies and people long before most nations even gave a thought
about it. Many big pharmaceutical companies, such as GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) have been
working hard to develop a vaccine for Ebola. So far there is only experimental drugs that have
been produced. Many global organizations such as the EU and UN have also been pledging
money, aid and people in helping West Africa and finding a vaccine. All this help has just

Running Header: THE EBOLA CASE IN WEST AFRICA: A CONCERN FOR WORLD
HEALTH
recently started to happen though. If aid to this extent was given before the massive out break
many lives could have been save and many scientist say the whole situation could have been
avoidable.
Whats being done? Now that the disease has been going on for a while people are now
starting to spread information about it and work on preventing the spread of the disease. Many
groups in Africa have started to form awareness teams in order to inform the people of Africa
about the disease. Many people in Africa believed that Ebola was not real but since the spread of
information has taken off and the death toll is rising the people are now listening. These
awareness teams go around and tell the people about how to prevent the spread of the disease
and inform the people about basics of the disease. Africa has also started forming body retrieval
teams and contact tracing teams. Body retrieval teams are groups of people that go to the
communities and hospitals to dispose of the dead bodies of people who were infected with Ebola.
Sometimes they even take bodies of people who do not have the disease but show similar
symptoms as precaution. They dispose of the bodies mainly through cremation in order to kill
the disease and rarely burry the bodies. The cremation of the bodies often causes conflict with
the family members because they want to see a formal burial of the body. Contact tracing teams
are groups of people that go to communities and try to find infected people with Ebola and see
who they have come in contact with. They also sever as awareness teams and try to inform the
people at the same time about Ebola and how to deal with it. Once they find an Ebola patient in
a community they try to get them into a hospital, but if the hospital is full they try to care for the
patient at their home. Although all these things are good things they all have just recently started
and some may say its better late than never.

Running Header: THE EBOLA CASE IN WEST AFRICA: A CONCERN FOR WORLD
HEALTH
So, has the disease spread to other countries and continents? The answer is yes and no.
Cases of people that have Ebola have been reported in the U.S. and Spain, but there has not been
an outbreak of the disease (BBC, 2014). These countries have been able to contain the patients
and prevent any further spread of the disease in the country. The main concern now is finding
people who have Ebola before they travel to other countries. Screenings at airports has begun
but the main problem is that you cant really tell if someone has Ebola until they show the
symptoms. If prevention and containment is kept up I believe it will be hard to spread Ebola
from country to country. The keyword being kept up. Developed countries cant sit back like
they did at the beginning of Ebola they have to keep up with it and be ready for anything Ebola
throws at them.
Is Ebola a major threat? We can finally conclude that Ebola is a major threat to the world
but it is not impossible to stop. If the world units to fight against the disease and help the nondeveloped countries fight Ebola it can be contained and dealt with. The world must unit though
and not depend on one country to lend all the help. Now that the disease has been fully
recognized as a threat I think countries will have more than enough reasons to fight it where ever
it is to prevent it from spreading to their country. The future seems to be looking brighter on the
fight against Ebola now that all the necessary measures are be taken. All I can do now is wait
and hope that the world makes the right decisions in fighting Ebola.

Reference
Taylor, A. (2014, September 16). What the world is doing to stop Ebola. Retrieved October 19,
2014, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/09/16/what-theworld-is-doing-to-stop-ebola/

Running Header: THE EBOLA CASE IN WEST AFRICA: A CONCERN FOR WORLD
HEALTH
Ebola is 'entrenched and accelerating' in West Africa. (2014, October 10). Retrieved October 19,
2014, from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-29563530
Ebola virus disease. (2014, September 1). Retrieved October 19, 2014, from
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/