Ebola Virus Disease
Summary
The recent news article on Ebola has illustrated many facts associated with the disease named Ebola in Nigeria. The WHO or World Health Organization declared Nigeria is Ebola-free. A containment success in an occurrence has hindered the response efforts of other countries.
An eruption has killed almost 4500 West Africans and remained unrestrained in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia (Sifferlin). So it is obvious to state that Nigeria is in no way protected from any more outbreaks. A country should be Ebola-free for 2days, and then only WHO can declare that country or state as Ebola-free.
The time span is set to 42 days because the virus incubation period is 21 days, and there should be no new case of Ebola within the double incubation period (Stimola).
Not only that the other conditions are the suspected individuals should show negative test results and health professionals should verify that all probable contacts are vigorously sought out.
Not only the scientific background, but this news article has also provided information on how the Ebola outbreak occurred. It was mentioned that 20cases have been reported after a Liberian-American man collapsed at airport (Carter).
The healthcare personnel treating this man were infected, and Ebola spread out rapidly and killed almost 8 people. Not only Nigeria, death was also reported from other countries (Fasina et al.).
Though Nigeria’s health system is pretty strong, health care professionals have assumed another dangerous outbreak within the county’s populated slums. Therefore, to avoid this possibility, the renowned members of the Ebola Emergency Operation Center have revealed their initiative in this article.
They have mentioned their early preparation, preparation during emergency situations, training local doctors, managing fear, decision about keeping open the borders, preparation for a greater number of affected individuals, and support for a greater worldwide response.
It is recommended by one of the higher professional from the Ebola Emergency Operation Center that global community requires to continuously come together and work mutually and cooperatively in any kind of public health crisis, if it is natural calamity or Ebola outbreak (Yusuf et al.).
Though many initiatives have been taken and implemented, gaps remain to completely abolish the disease in Nigeria. People should act now without delaying or postponing the desired health-benefiting activities.
Background
From the news article, it is known that the first affected individual in the current outbreak might be a 2-year-old child in Guinea. This kid spread Ebola to the family members and health care providers who transmitted the Ebola virus to other areas of the country.
Ebola, also known as Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever, is a disease of primates and humans. Indications typically initiate between 2 days and 3 weeks after being introduced to the Ebola virus, such as sore throat, fever, headaches, and muscle pain. Subsequently, diarrhea, vomiting, and rash occur, together with decreased kidney and liver functions.
Sometimes it can happen that people bleed both externally and internally. According to WHO, the Ebola virus can be transmitted from wild animals to humans and spreads through human-to-human transmission. The average fatality rate of Ebola infection is around 50%.
The fatality rate can varies from 25%-90% (Who.int). The initial epidemic took place in Central Africa, close to tropical rainforests but recent eruption in West Africa has comprised rural and major urban areas. This disease has high death risk because of decreased blood pressure from loss of fluid. Researchers have demonstrated number of innovative technologies to combat with Ebola.
The FDA’s animal efficacy rule is applied to demonstrate rational safety to get permission to care for Ebola-infected individuals (McCarthy). With the help of Biotechnology, antisense technology is now a new introduction to this treatment field (BBC News).
Researchers have demonstrated that both PMOs (Phosphorodiamidate Morpholino Oligomers) and siRNAs (small interfering RNAs) target the L protein of EBOV RNA polymerase and might prevent Ebola disease within nonhuman primates (Geisbert et al.).
Based on the same principle, a small interfering RNA compound, termed TKM-Ebola, is currently under clinical trial phase I for humans (Cbc.ca). WHO mentioned community involvement is key success to control epidemics. Good epidemic control depends on applying intervention package, explicitly, case surveillance, management and contact tracing, high-quality laboratory services, social mobilization and safe burials.
Initial supportive care with symptomatic treatment and rehydration increases the rate of survival. Though no licensed treatment is yet approved to neutralize the Ebola virus, a range of drug therapies, immunological therapies, and blood therapies are still under development.
Analysis
The newspaper article does not mention any hypothesis or experiment as such but clearly describes how the state Government responded to the public health crisis when Nigeria confirmed its first incident of Ebola. The article is reasonable and presents no misleading information.
The information shared by the higher official personnel from Ebola Emergency Operation Center (Sifferlin). He has shared about their early preparation, preparation during emergency situations, training local doctors, managing fear, decision about keeping open the borders, preparation for more number of affected individuals and support for more worldwide response.
Therefore, the information is pretty useful for the next possible outbreak of Ebola. Officials have informed us that during the Ebola outbreak, the emergency operation used a war-room strategy to coordinate outbreak response (Sifferlin).
Thus, they have created a situation where personnel from global development agencies and the government are located together in an assigned facility. Here, they can develop a common applicable strategy and agree on it, improve a plan, and incorporate the plan efficiently together.
So, form the article, one thing is clear that the focus is completely on the control and management opportunities of Ebola outbreak within the country in case of any further sudden outbreak.
As a whole, it is definitely said that the article shows a good work reporting on science facts that is firmly associated with public health emergency. This reporting can be graded as ‘A’ in terms of the presented information.
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