North America Geographic Area

Running Head: Unit 3 - Case Study Assignment – Emerging Diseases 1
Unit 3 - Case Study Assignment – Emerging Diseases
Student’s Name
Institution
Date

Unit 3 - Case Study Assignment – Emerging Diseases 2
Emerging diseases
Case #7: Development of a Pediatric Ebola Predictive Score,
Sierra Leone
Case #11: Echinococcosis spp. Tapeworms in North America
Geographic Area Involved
The geographic areas involved include West Africa and Sierra
Leonne, (Fitzgerald et al. 2018). Ebola outbreak witnessed in
West Africa has been the greatest in history which infected
thousands of people and killed half of the population. This virus
outbreak emerged from Guinea and spread to Sierra Leonne,
Liberia and then Nigeria.
Geographic Area Involved
Alveolar and cystic echinococcosis are currently emerging in
Europe, Africa and Asia. Other geographical areas include North
America and specifically the United States, Canada, Alaska and
the other Arctic countries, (Cerda, Buttke, & Ballweber, 2018).
Health Needs
Health needs includes the risks of fever, breathing difficulties,
and gastrointestinal difficulties. Gastrointestinal difficulties are
Health Needs
The health needs include he risks to various infections to human
beings through companion animal ownership, the shepherding

Unit 3 - Case Study Assignment – Emerging Diseases 3
mostly associated with bleeding. Other risks include vomiting
and nausea, muscles and joint pain, rashes and headaches,
(Fitzgerald et al.2018).
behavior, contact to dogs’ sheep and Swine. These risk factors
may lead to California, Utah, New Mexico, and the Arizona
cycles after people become infected of cysts. Consumption of
rodents’ meat is also another risk factor that may lead to
Ethinococcus spp, (Cerda, Buttke, & Ballweber, 2018).
Financial/Cultural Costs (socioeconomic)
There is a high economic burden associated with Ebola. One of
them includes the high rate of death caused by the virus during
its outbreak. Offering emergency aids leads to high use of
finances in both Sierra Leonne and West Africa. Many resources
are needed for the containment of Ebola, its treatment and
recovery, ("West African Ebola epidemic cost $53 billion,
according to new estimate," 2018).
Another financial cost includes complexity in its control which
demands fast aid of human resources from other countries or
Financial/Cultural Costs (socioeconomic)
There are numerous costs of the programs that control this
disease. People should engage themselves in actions that hinder
areas of contact with this disease. If one gets infected, its
treatment is high which leads to high cost of seeking for
medication. It is costly to do its social and cultural evaluation of
its consequences, (Cerda, Buttke, & Ballweber, 2018).
Resources must be used to control it and still come up with
strategies of controlling the disease, which also is an expensive
task, ("Systematic Review of the Epidemiology of

Unit 3 - Case Study Assignment – Emerging Diseases 4
seeking for screening services from other countries. Echinococcosis in Domestic and Wild Animals,”).
The infections lead to direct money costs for the purpose of
seeking diagnosis, therapy, surgery and post treatment care.
Other indirect costs include social consequences, mortality and
suffering. Some people end up into disability.
An infected animal suffers fecundity, poor yield of milk, reduced
meat quality, reduced birth rate and even death. People end up
incurring financial costs to destruct the infected viscera in the
animals and animal loss.
Outcome of Intervention
Changes of behavior in the local communities were witnessed
through changed beliefs and practices. The interventions also
led to reinforcing effects where some had major positive
impacts.
The outcomes of the interventions also include reduced mortality
rate and the control of the phenomena.
Local, and state operations plans for emergency are developed to
Outcome of Intervention
Epidemiologic factors associated with Echinococcosis infections
in the hosts of animals is identified using statistical models. This
intervention leads to designing of control policies that halt/stop
the spread of the infections to the animals’ hosts, ("Systematic
Review of the Epidemiology of Echinococcosis in Domestic and
Wild Animals,”). One of the control policies include
immunization of the animals. Another successful intervention

Unit 3 - Case Study Assignment – Emerging Diseases 5
deal with the specific needs and concerns for response towards
Ebola.
The public and staff are informed on Ebola, its risks of
transmission and how it can be protected through risk messages
of communication and it is ensured that all the clinical labs
review their procedures and protocols for safety and finally,
through the interventions, epidemiological tools are availed to
the local and the state staff who consequently plan for their
implementation.
include surgery for the cysts removal after the infection.
Interventions has led to the reduced stay in the hospital to the
hospitalized patients and the cases of hospitalization reduce in
number and have also facilitated research and the analysis of
genetic diversity.
Conclusion
There is a high need to carry out research based on the phenomena presented above. Sufficient research shall lead to discovery of
vaccines that can be used to completely prevent Ebola outbreak and at the same time reduce the transmission of Echinococcosis spp
infections. This can be done through multidisciplinary cooperation in research of the diseases’ associated comorbidities and how
they can be controlled to prevent mortality and reduce the high financial burden experienced during the outbreaks. Post outbreak
period s of great help to enable all the stakeholders to think of the effective ways of fighting these phenomena.
If the Stakeholders fail to do the necessary investments in the health systems, and the adequate reforms, the present Ebola health

Unit 3 - Case Study Assignment – Emerging Diseases 6
systems shall be exacerbated. To help mitigate the outbreak’s direct consequences, and ensure the delivery of the emergency health
care services needed, the civil society, international organizations and the non-governmental organizations need to highly bolster the
national health system.
References

Unit 3 - Case Study Assignment – Emerging Diseases 7
A Systematic Review of the Epidemiology of Echinococcosis in Domestic and Wild Animals. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3674998/
Cerda, J. R., Buttke, D. E., & Ballweber, L. R. (2018). Echinococcus spp. Tapeworms in North America. Emerging Infectious
Diseases, 24(2), 230-235. doi:10.3201/eid2402.161126
Fitzgerald, F., Wing, K., Naveed, A., Gbessay, M., Ross, J., Checchi, F., … Yeung, S. (2018). Development of a Pediatric Ebola
Predictive Score, Sierra Leone1. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 24(2), 311-319. doi:10.3201/eid2402.171018
West African Ebola epidemic cost $53 billion, according to new estimate. (2018, October 19). Retrieved from
https://www.healio.com/infectious-disease/emerging-diseases/news/online/%7B4146a68a-dff1-43f9-8e75-57d0cc1ee98d
%7D/west-african-ebola-epidemic-cost-53-billion-according-to-new-estimate
References 2 and 3 are the references for the two provided case studies