Ebola - Sierra Leone

By: Aryan and Jay

Disease Information
- Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known
as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe and
fatal illness to humans (Ebola Virus Disease,
2018).
- It mainly wecks the immune system, which
causes heavy bleeding inside the body and
damages almost every organ system (Ebola
Virus Infection).
- The signs and symptoms for the ebola
disease are fever, low fatigue, muscle pain,
headache, sore throat and more (Ebola Virus
Infection).
- Usually, it occurs from 2 to 21 days after
making contact with the disease (Ebola Virus
Disease, 2018).
Countries Impacted

- The disease originated in Guinea but spread to nearby countries such as

Sierra Leone due to transmission of the disease (Ebola, 2017).
- Ebola was mainly prevalent in West Africa but still had a small presence in
some parts of Europe and North America (Ebola, 2017).
- Out of 28 652 total cases of the ebola virus, only 14 of those cases were
reported outside of Africa in Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, and United States
(Ebola, 2017).
Who is Affected Locally and Globally
- The citizens of countries in West Africa such as Sierra Leone and Guinea
were mainly affected.
- In Sierra Leone, there were 8 706 confirmed cases of the Ebola virus. 3 956
of those cases were fatal (Ebola, 2017).
- The global impact of the disease was not nearly as severe as the local impact
- In the United States, there were a total of 11 confirmed cases between 2014
and 2016 (Ebola, 2017).
 - For local initiative, UNICEF launched a
Existing Initiatives three-day campaign to raise awareness of
the disease and help prevent its further
spread (UNICEF, 2014).
- They established 10 community care
centres (CCC) with approximately trained
200 clinical health workers and hygienists
(UNICEF, 2014).
- The main object was to put the infected
patients to CCC with proper health care and
treatments in order to isolate the infected
and uninfected patients (UNICEF, 2014).
- Not many relevant global initiatives because
this disease didn’t infect many people
outside of west Africa.
New Initiative
- We are proposing an educational program targeted towards citizens that
reside in West Africa in order to help further their knowledge on the Ebola
Virus.
- The educational program would also provide citizens with the tools to be able
to prevent themselves from contracting diseases and viruses.
- Some beneficial information that we can provide would include an overview of
the Ebola Virus and preventative methods such as healthy sanitary
behaviours.
New Initiative Con’t

- Our goal is to partner with organizations such as Unicef and WHO (World
Health Organization).
- These organization can help establish our initiative in West Africa as they
already have experience operating in third world countries.
- Their expertise in this area can help maximize the output of our initiative by
reaching as many people as we can in the region.
Limitations of Initiative
- Since we are a non-profit organization,
we will require volunteers to help run our
initiative. If we do not have the support of
established organizations like Unicef and
WHO, it may be difficult to find new
volunteers willing to participate.
- West Africa is a poverty stricken region
so up to date technology is scarce.
Presenting the knowledge to these
citizens may be an issue due to lack of
resources.
References
UNICEF. (2014). Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/emergencies/ebola/76145.html

Ebola (Ebola Virus Disease). (2017, December 27). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/history/2014-2016-

outbreak/index.html

Ebola virus disease. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ebola-virus-disease

Ebola Virus Infection. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/ebola-fever-virus-infection

References Contd.
Factors that contributed to undetected spread of the Ebola virus and impeded rapid containment. (2015, September

22). Retrieved from https://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/one-year-report/factors/en/

FAQ. (2017, October 03). Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/about/who/index_faq.html

https://globalizationandhealth.biomedcentral.com

Kaner, J., & Schaack, S. (2016). Understanding Ebola: The 2014 epidemic.