Ebola Virus: Transmission, Symptoms, and Prevention

This article provides information on the transmission, symptoms, and prevention of Ebola virus. It discusses the origin of the virus from wild animals and the need for a vaccine. Public health management and prevention strategies, especially in rural areas, are emphasized.

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Ebola Virus
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Introduction
Ebola virus disease is currently known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever. It is a deadly
infection that quickly leads to the death of human beings. The mode of transmission of the virus
is human blood contact, and the virus spread from wild animals. Ebola was named after River
Ebola in the late seventies. River Ebola is found in Zaire where Ebola is believed to have
emerged from. Apart from Zaire, the virus is believed to originate from Sudan. The first outbreak
of Ebola was reported in Sudan where 285 people were infected and 52% of them dying (Judson,
Prescott, & Munster, 2015). The second outbreak was recorded in Zaire a few months afterward
killing an unknown number of people. Contact of infected blood is the only method of infection
of the virus.
Ebola can be found in body fluids such as sweat, milk, semen, feces, saliva, and mucus.
Despite the virus being in the universe for more than two decades, a vaccine has not been
established because of the dangerous nature of the virus. Health organizations should assist
management and prevention of the virus from spreading in the world. Scientists do not have an
accurate report of the Ebola virus originated from. According to their study, they assume that the
virus originated from wild animals and was transmitted to human beings. The bat is believed to
be the animal that carries the virus which can easily be transferred to other animals with the close
interaction of wild animals, the bat-transmitted the virus to other world animals that are strictly
related to human beings. The man used to depend on animals in the past decades, and they were
forced to hunt for animals to satisfy their needs. A long time ago in Africa, one human got
infected with the virus while hunting. Lack of prior knowledge of Ebola made other people affect
the virus by attempting to save him. That is a brief history regarding the sources of Ebola
(Brown, 2015).

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Fatal Ebola is caused by infection of a virus of the Filoviridae family with a generic name
Ebola virus. The killing rate of Ebola depends upon the strain. Not only blood is responsible for
the infection of Ebola but also tissues of infected animals and body fluids. Animals infected with
Ebola have their tissues, blood and body fluids as host of the virus. Intensive care needs to be
observed for anyone who contracts the virus. Like many other infections, Ebola is accompanied
by given signs and symptoms. The extreme weakness of body parts and joints, frequent pain in
muscles, severe headache, sore throat, and fever are signs of a person infected with Ebola. Ebola
is known to be a virus that spreads faster than any other sickness within families and friends. The
case happens because of an attempt to take care of the infected. Ebola symptoms start to appear
from the second up to the twenty-first day after infection (Wu, Wang, Yang, Zheng, & Sha,
2015). It means that on the day of disease, one can transmit the virus to more than ten people
around him because there are no signs to show up for precaution.
Transmission of Ebola between human beings occurs in many ways. Evading a given
form of infecting does not guarantee one of being safe. The various ways of transmission
include; Direct contact with an infected person. The connection might occur at broken skin,
blood, body secretions, and any given type of body fluid. Secondly, the Ebola virus can be
transmitted by indirect contact with a contaminated environment. The environment may be
contaminated with blood from an infected person or body fluids. Exposure to unsterilized objects
that came in contact with the infected person can be a way of transmitting the infection. During
burial ceremonies, people mourn and touch the body of the dead person, and the virus can be
active despite the host not being alive (MCDONALD, 2019). Healthcare workers can infect the
virus while working on infected individuals, however careful they may be, the surrounding might
be careless.

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Although healthcare and funerals play a significant role in ensuring the infected gets a
warm farewell, they risk their lives with that of the community for infecting Ebola Virus. These
activities account for the second most significant way of transmitting the infection after family
members’ interaction. Studies have found that exposure of the body of the deceased to more than
then person result in two infecting the virus (Brown, 2015). The rate of attack is lower n children
in such cases because they are not common in neither funeral celebration nor patent rooms. The
initial spread of the Ebola virus at household levels is more prone to larger households compared
to small ones.
More surveillance research is needed to assess the risk of Ebola transmission through
sexual activities. Ebola is far worse than HIV/AIDS n transmission during sexual activities.
Since HIV can, the infection can be protected during sexual activities, and Ebola cannot be
protected. The events will involve contact of body fluids either by hand or any other means. All
methods of preventing HIV infection cannot be applied to preventing Ebola. Before the diagnosis
of Ebola, health officers should ensure other diseases are ruled out. If the patient is found to be
infected with the virus, they must be isolated to avoid contaminating other patents. The virus can
be diagnosed by carrying out various tests including, IgM ELIS, ELISA testing, PCR and Virus
isolation. Diagnosis is made using IgM and IgG if the virus is found to be precise (Che JY &
Ding J, 2015).
With all the learned people in the Universe, the Ebola vaccine has not yet been
discovered. The world is full of doctors and medical researchers who have invented vaccines of
given diseases such as polio and Tuberculosis. No one has shown interest over the past decade n
coming up with an Ebola vaccine. There are many theories formulated because of lack of
invention of a vaccine. People believe that since scientist are not sure where Ebola came from

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hey are unable to come up with a vaccine that can help treat polio. People think that a bat
infected the virus from somewhere else which is currently under study (Roemer-Mahler, 2017).
The arguments are illogical because if the bat infected the virus from another source, then
medical researchers should have come up with suggestions and tests of the real cause of disease
spread.
According to traditional myths, people have a perception that Ebola came as a result of
punishment from God. God used Ebola to punish the earth from the sins committed. It is viewed
by a religious individual as a sign of the end times, and God decided to bring Ebola to the
universe to kill people one at a go. The argument is also senseless. There are other dangerous
diseases in the world whose vaccines have been being covered. Such condition includes polo.
Polio is a disease that can cause the death of a person at any given time.
As per my perception, the dangerous nature of Ebola makes it difficult for medical
researchers to work on it. The question is, it the virus has caused the death of health officers who
carefully handled the infected people, how about dealing with the real virus? Medical officers
find it tedious to look for Ebola virus and treat it to come up with a vaccine. According to World
Health Organizations, samples of any given type from infected people re hazardous. Attempting
to carry out a test using the samples requires maximum contaminated conditions with biological
aspects. Comparing Ebola to other infections that have vaccines such as Tuberculosis, we can
conclude that Ebola is too dangerous to establish a vaccine. Tuberculosis can be handled without
precaution because s safer.
Public health management and prevention should be implemented in rural areas of every
nation and developing countries. In rural areas, people are less informed about the importance of
their health. A large proportion of people do not care because they are not elite. Public health

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must play a significant role in educating these individuals about Ebola, not only about Ebola but
generally how to take care of their health. World Health Organization suggests that rural areas
should be enlightened with various ways that people can transmit Ebola (Tambunan, Alkaff, &
Nasution, 2018). Education can also base on how to take care of infected people, how to behave
during burial ceremonies of the deceased and precautions to observe during sexual activities.
Areas of address varies, example are cases of rural verses urban way of public health
management. The Rural citizens need to be educated on most likely animals they should avoid
minimizing more infections of new Ebola viruses.
Education alone is not enough, and Public health officers should establish more health
facilities in rural areas and encourage rural individuals to pay a regular visit to the hospitals.
They must do trough checking of Ebola virus and plan of essential strategies to isolate people
found to have the virus (Lo, 2015). Workers in such facilities need to be more cautious of the
rural people infected with the virus most likely the infected ones. They can easily lead to
infection by health officers because they fail to follow instructions given to them.
Public health can minimize infection of the virus in poor people by changing their mind
about health. Poor people behave strangely by taking less care about their health. They believe
health caretaking is or those people who have resources. Ebola is a virus that can be presented on
an equal platform of both rich and poor. Poor people are ever hopeless in the society they reach a
time where some wish they could die to unburden themselves.
Those in non-western countries struggle to get their food. Public health should launch
programs that will give the poor hope and solve their small problems. They need to be guided on
the importance of health management and how life is precious. Problem sharing with such
individuals might give them hope and the urge to live more on the world. Ensuring they are

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active by engaging them into activities can result in developing a sense of humanity and the need
for health care. Once public health has established a sense of humanity in sick people, they
should educate them on the importance of avoiding wild animals as a source of food. However,
non-westernized poor people might find it rough because some cannot afford to sustain their
lives without hunting on wild animals. A solution to their problem is launching programs that
will provide food assistance to them. All set, they need medical direction to keep them vibrant
about Ebola.
Conclusion
Ebola is a fatal infection of a virus which is believed to have originated from wild
animals. The Virus can quickly spread to people from infected individuals through contact with
blood and body fluids. Since the discovery of the virus, significant outbreaks have been
reported, and the effect is causing death. Because of its dangerous nature of the infection,
medical doctors fear to research on the vaccine that will help cure Ebola. Therefore, Public
health needs to step in and save people from dying of Ebola. Rural people should be enlightened
on the virus, how it can be infected and how they can behave to minimize infection. Sick,
especially from non-western countries, should be provided with counseling to give them hope of
life. Food support needs to be contributed and majorly, medication checkup and precaution on
Ebola.

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References
Brown, P. (2015). Ebola origin remains a mystery. Molecular Medicine Today, 1(4), 157.
doi:10.1016/s1357-4310(95)91552-4
Che JY, L. D., & Ding J, L. T. (2015). Ebola Origin and Therapies. Journal of Postgenomics
Drug & Biomarker Development, 05(03). doi:10.4172/2153-0769.1000e138
Judson, S., Prescott, J., & Munster, V. (2015). Understanding Ebola Virus
Transmission. Viruses, 7(2), 511-521. doi:10.3390/v7020511
Lo, Y. (2015). Fight against Ebola: Preparedness and public health response. Journal of
Microbiology, Immunology and Infection, 48(2), S17-S18.
doi:10.1016/j.jmii.2015.02.162
MCDONALD, L. (2019). Blood exposure end protection in funeral homes. American Journal of
Infection Control, 17(4), 193-195. doi:10.1016/0196-6553(89)90127-2
Roemer-Mahler, A. (2017.). Introduction: Ebola and International Relations. The International
Politics of Ebola, 1-7. doi:10.4324/9781138293588-1
Tambunan, U. S., Alkaff, A. H., & Nasution, M. A. (2018). Bioinformatics Approach to
Screening and Developing Drug against Ebola. Advances in Ebola Control.
doi:10.5772/intechopen.72278
Wu, X., Wang, H., Yang, Y., Zheng, Y., & Sha, L. (2015). Investigation for Ebola virus
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Hospital Infection, 91(2), 185-186. doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2015.07.004