Ebola Virus Disease: Transmission, Treatment, and Prevention

Running Head: EBOLA VIRUS DISEASE
Ebola Virus Disease
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EBOLA VIRUS DISEASE
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Ebola Virus Disease
Introduction
Ebola virus disease is one of the global diseases that has made headlines in the whole
globe for many years. The ongoing Zaire ebolavirus represents the deadliest and largest ever-
known outbreak of Ebola Virus disease as well as marks the first instance that the disease has
spread outside East and Central Africa. For instance, in August 2014, many governments and the
World Health Organization stated that the outbreak of the diseases be considered as a public
health emergency of global concern, that is, an extraordinary situation that is determined to
constitute a community risk to other nations via global spread of the disease as well as to likely
need a coordinated global response (Pițigoin et al. 2018). Ebola virus disease is known as a
contagious disease caused y RNA virus, that is, the disease is spread through direct contact with
human body fluids of a patient with Ebola virus disease (Area, NdaÏrou, Nieto, Silva & Torres,
2018).
When the pathogens exist in the surrounding at a relatively constant level, they are
viewed to be endemic. Nevertheless, when the number of cases of the disease increases higher
than the level expected, the condition is viewed to be either pandemic or endemic depending on
the impact area. Ebola virus is sometimes known as the Ebola hemorrhagic fever due to the
illness being linked to the high vascular damage and fevers. More presently, nevertheless, this
name has not been largely accepted since less than 51% of the patients of Ebola show
appreciable symptoms of hemorrhage. The Ebola virus disease has an incubation duration which
ranges from 2-21 days, with signs and symptoms characteristically appearing 8-12 days after
exposure by the people. Initial symptoms of the disease entail headache, anorexia, muscle pain

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and fever. Quick Ebola virus disease identification anchored on these symptoms may be hard, as
they are similar to those observed in individuals having Lassa fever, influenza, typhoid,
pneumonia or even malaria. As the disease progresses, individuals normally develop watery
diarrhea, abdominal pain, vomiting and nausea. Symptoms of hemorrhage may entail melena,
hemoptysis, epistaxis, conjunctival bleeding, petechia, hematuria, and hematemesis. In the final
stages of the Ebola virus disease, individuals show obtundation, anuria as well as tachypnea.
Loss of life happens after an average of 10 days of the condition as well as it can take survivors
more than two months to make a full recovery.
Background of the Ebola Virus Disease
Ebola virus disease was initially identified in 1976 when two distinct outbreaks in Sudan
and Zaire. The Zaire outbreak started with a man who visited a hospital with a fever lost his life a
week later from a deadly hemorrhage (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). It
should be noted that five days before the admission in the hospital, the man had been given an
injection of chloroquine at Yamkubu Mission hospital for malaria-like signs and symptoms
treatment. At the initial time of the outbreak, it was common for injection syringes to be reused
after being rinsed between patients. Over the next two to three months, over 301 individuals
developed Ebola virus disease symptoms. Medical health studies indicate that more than 26% of
the patients infected with the Ebola virus disease had been injected at the Yamkubu Mission
Hospital. During the period of outbreak, 281 out of 320 patients with Ebola virus died from the
disease, representing a case mortality rate of approximately 89% (Rainisch et al. 2015). Of the
18 healthcare institution staffs exposed to the virus, 14 people became infected, and 12 died.
After the first Ebola virus outbreak in 1976, there have numerous outbreaks of the disease in
Africa, that is, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Sudan, Uganda, with a total of 1593