Ebola Virus Disease: Source, Transmission, Vaccination and Public Health Management

Running head: PUBLIC HEALTH
Public health
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Introduction
The assignment deals with the Ebola a viral disease. It is a deadly disease that kills upto
90% of the effected people. The virus first appeared during two outbreaks in Africa, 1976. The
Ebola virus disease is the “public health emergency of international concern” as declared by
“World Health Organization” or WHO in 2014 (WHO, 2018). The outbreak of Ebola turned
epidemic in 2016. It lasted for two years and infected around 26,700 people. It resulted in 11,300
deaths (World Health Organization, 2016). In regards to this deadly the disease the assignment
aims to discuss the source of the infection and transmission of the virus as per the literature
available. The report highlights the rationale for no vaccination for Ebola disease. It is compared
and contrasted to other diseases that have vaccine while giving the insightful thinking. Next, the
report highlights the public health management after epidemic and the prevention of the deadly
disease. Based on the extensive research in this area and the valuable insights gained, an overall
conclusion will be drawn.
Source of Ebola and transmission
The name of the disease and virus comes from Ebola River, in a city in Democratic
Republic of Congo. The outbreak in the West Africa first started in the single infected person as
per the recent genetic analysis. This was traced to event where a person was infected with bat.
The single introduction led the major outbreaks. The source of the virus was found to be
originated in Guinea. It was then observed to spread to Sierra Leone and Liberia in an outbreak.
It was spread by human beings repeatedly being infected and not spread by animals infecting
people repeatedly. The virus has been traced to have a common source as per the senior associate
member at Harvard University. In Sierra Leone, a traditional healer treated infected patients

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from Guinea and after her death the patients flocked to her funeral and infected ten more people.
Genetic sequences taken from one of the infected pregnant women confirm these findings. The
evolution of the virus was traced by the mutation studies of the Virus (Osterholm et al., 2015).
In West Africa it was found to mutate twice and was the reason for widespread outbreak.
Ebola also known as haemorrhagic fever is highly infectious viral disease. It is
transmitted by direct and indirect contact with the infected person and body fluids according to
WHO. It includes blood, urine, saliva, vomit, breast milk, semen, and vaginal fluid. The most
infectious body fluids are vomit, faeces, blood. In males the semen contains virus persistently.
The symptoms of the vaccine are diarrhea, rash, muscle pain, headache, fever, as well as
bleeding in some cases (Muyembe-Tamfum et al., 2012). The virus is also known to be
transmitted by the indirect contact to previously contaminated surfaces. The virus is known as
deadly for its attack on the immune system cells thereby releasing the army of inflammatory
molecules. It causes the bursting of tiny blood vessels which drops the blood pressure. It results
in multiple organ failure (Osterholm et al., 2015). As per epidemiological data the soared of this
virus is no the same as that of thee influenza vaccine.
No vaccines and compare and contrasts
There are no vaccines licensed for Ebola as there is still lack of data from medical
standpoint on long term effects of the infection. Until the outbreak in 2013, the Ebola vaccine
research was abandoned. There are several challenges faced by the researchers as the virus is
very complicated to study. It has been observed since ages that researchers have tough time
studying and developing treatments for viral diseases (Kibuuka et al., 2015). Folayan et al.
(2016) argued that the unlike the antibacterial therapy, the antiviral therapy has always lagged

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behind. Virus being small molecules has fewer targets for treatment due to less protein.
Therefore, there is fewer targets for the person’s immune system primed by the vaccines. The
other barriers identified are the quick evolution of the virus. Therefore, there is huge uncertainty
that the vaccine developed today would be effective against the future outbreaks. Considering
the high mortality rate that is 90%, it implies for the researchers to work with high level safety
precautions and facilities. Not all the cities have biosafety level 4" laboratory needed for Ebola
experimentation. A potential treatment for Ebola has been found to be promising in the animal
models. A compound has been identified that interferes with the viral replication. Further
treatment is targeted towards preventing the viral entry into cells by blocking the surface proteins
that bind the virus. This vaccine was known as rVSV-ZEBOV. Another possible therapy that is
in progress is the antibodies against viral parts raised in mice. In 2012, this formulation when
applied on monkeys showed survivorship within two days. The vaccine rVSV-ZEBOV against
Ebola met the safety criteria by the scientists but the efficacy trial does not indicate protection
gains’ all the viral strains (Kibuuka et al., 2015).
There are challenges to the recruitment of the health care workers for research on Ebola
vaccine. The workers may have mistaken beliefs when treating the patients that the vaccine may
be beneficial. It may result in coercion and hamper the equity and justice. It is because the study
does not involve participants who are not skilled health care providers. They may not be
prioritised for vaccination. It is not yet clearly addressed if the study participants would contract
the infection despite the use of experimental vaccine and provision of standard care. These
concerns must be addressed transparently. It must be formalised as a part of ethics. For accessing
the study products the TRIPS agreement needs must also be considered. There is a need of
international support in this regard (Campoy Rubio, 2015). It may be possible only by engaging