Impact of globalisation on health

The current assignment focuses on the aspect of globalisation and its effect upon the health of the community. The assignment discusses the evil effects of globalisation with reference to the contraction and management of Ebola. Ebola had become a health hazard in the 2014-15 quarter when a large mass of people who had travelled to West Africa with regards to work had been exposed to the deadly virus.

Running head: IMPACT OF GLOBALISATION ON HEALTH
Impact of globalisation on health
Name of the student
University name
Author’s note

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IMPACT OF GLOBALISATION ON HEALTH
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Source and transmission of Ebola..............................................................................................2
Comparison of Ebola with other conditions which do have vaccines.......................................4
Public health management and prevention of Ebola..................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The current assignment focuses on globalization and its impact upon the health of
people. Globalization has resulted in effective collaboration between countries. The
collaboration has often been established in terms of exchange of services and products.
Additionally, there has been exchange of human labour between different countries as a result
of globalization. The free pass between countries is also a gateway to a huge number of
pathogens and viruses. Some of these viruses could be life threatening and lead to lethal
consequences. The assignment particularly discusses the transmission and the impact of the
Ebola virus.
The epidemic of the Ebola virus in the year 2014-2015 raised global concerns. It soon
became pandemic and had lethal consequences claiming a huge number of lives. The
outbreak of the Zaire ebolavirus (EBOV) began in guinea by the end of 2013. The disease
soon spread to the neighbouring regions of Liberia and Sierra Leone. By April 2016, there
have been 28,652 cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa alone. Of these almost
40% of the case were found to be fatal (Gee & Skovdal, 2018).
Source and transmission of Ebola
The Ebola virus disease (EVD) is caused by Ebola virus which is a member of the
filovirus family and occurs in humans and other primates. The disease first occurred in the
year 1976 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Sudan. There are five species of
the ebola virus such as – Zaire ebolavirus, Sudan ebolavirus, Tia forest (also formerly known
as ebola ivory coast) and Bundibugyo ebolavirus, the fifth one is the Reston ebolavirus. The
investigations caused the first outbreak to be caused by RESTV in one export facility in the
Philippines. Though there were no clear indications regarding the manner in which the

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facility got contaminated. There have been several outbreaks of Ebola in Africa in between
1976 and 2014. Some of these were primarily restricted to the remote areas, whereas most
confined cases were reported from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2014, 74% of
the EVD outbreaks were caused by the Zaire ebolavirus (Nyarko, Goldfrank, Ogedegbe,
Soghoian & Aikins, 2015). The transmission was found to occur on contact with blood and
body fluids such as semen, sputum etc. The Ebola was first reported in individuals who
handled infected gorillas, chimpanzees and the first antelope in the republic of Congo (Evans,
Goldstein & Popova, 2015). The first case in West Africa likely occurred due to exposure to
bats. The infection was carried forward with direct contact with body fluids of infected
individuals or through contaminated or soiled articles. As reported by McDermott (2016),
acquisition of the disease on sexual contact with a survivor has also been reported. It has been
seen that the virus remains in the semen of the infected individual even months after
recovery. The hospital workers have severely contacted the Ebola virus on contact with
infected individuals. As mentioned by Evans, Goldstein & Popova (2015), lack of timely
detection of the disease contraction in the healthcare professionals further enhanced the
spread of the disease.
The incubation period of the Ebola virus ranges from 2-21 days. The illness is
suddenly expressed with the onset of fever, headache, joint and muscle pain, intense
weakness etc. The situation could worsen within the patients in the form of expression such
as rash, red eyes, hiccups, impaired function of the liver and kidney along with internal and
external haemorrhage. Ebola can lead to fatal consequences in 40-90% of the cases. As
mentioned by McInnes (2016), diagnosis of Ebola in the early stages is difficult as there are
little or no symptoms. The exposure to Ebola has been seen to double in the lack of
healthcare professionals using effective personal protective equipments (Bradbury-Jones &
Clark, 2017). Additionally, the lack of vaccines has made the treatment of Ebola difficult.

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Therefore, Ebola has reached the stage of epidemic where once contracted could not be easily
cured. More importance has been placed upon the isolation and barrier techniques.
Therefore, the healthcare professionals have laid much importance upon the use of personal
protective equipments such as masks, gloves and gown.
Comparison of Ebola with other conditions which do have vaccines
Ebola has been compare with a number of other pathogen and viruses based upon the
treatment and the therapies. Ebola is an RNA virus and is single stranded which means that
its genome is more prone to mutation. As reported by Evans, Goldstein & Popova (2015),
most of the mutations could be attributed to single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The
drastic mutation rates have made medicines and vaccinations ineffective. Therefore, no
sufficient amount of vaccinations has been effective in reducing the rates of occurrence of
EVD ("Ebola data and statistics", 2018). The medications have only been able to provide
temporary relief to the patients. In this respect, none of the vaccines for Ebola virus have
been found to be sage enough for testing within the human population. As mentioned by
McInnes (2016), there has been licensing issues which has restricted the use of the virus
within the population at large. Some of the vaccines, which have been in the developmental
stage are- ChAd3-ZEBOV and VSV-EBOV. Both the vaccines have been developed by
GlaxoSmithKline in collaboration with Us National Institute of Allergy and infectious
diseases (NIAID). However, a number of ethical considerations have to be passed for the
effective trial and use of vaccine within the population. Some of the ethical implications laid
down by the WHO were that there should be a strong scientific hypothesis behind the trial of
a particular scientific formula (Ayeni, Iyiola, Ogunnaike & Ibidunni, 2016). The intervention
methods should have been tested and trialled in animal models and non-human primates.

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The availability of vaccination of Ebola has been compared with some of the other
diseases such as measles, pertusis, HIV and seasonal influenza. Measles and pertusis have
been seen to possess no treatment or cure whereas both have been preventable with the use of
vaccination. As argued by Bradbury-Jones & Clark (2017), no vaccine is 100% effective and
the length of the response produced depends upon the immunity of the patient. For example,
vaccination against varicella zoster has not been found to be 100% effective in treating
chicken pox. Therefore, the immunity of the patient against the chicken pox virus depends
upon the amount of immunoglobulin (IgA, IgG) generated in the body of the patient (Mate et
al., 2015). Therefore, the vaccines if cannot totally eliminate the chances for the contraction
of a disease can reduce the length of the recovery period along with producing. Sufficient
research and evidences have focused upon the timely intake of vaccine before and after
leaving the country as certain disease are endemic to a country. WHO has prescribed those
vaccines for hepatitis, Japanese encephalitis, polio, typhoid and yellow fever should be taken
before visiting a list of counties as some of them have been found to be endemic to the region
("Ebola data and statistics", 2018). As argued by Alirol et al. (2017), some of the countries
have implemented a weekly epidemiological record as there are huge number of pilgrims
visiting Arab during the hajj. WHO has recently placed sufficient importance on the pre-
travel consultation for people visiting the west and east African countries as Africa is still not
100% free of the Ebola virus (Osterholm et al., 2015). This is because even after recovery the
virus could remain in the semen of the survivors. However, the huge number of ethical
challenges made the success of Ebola vaccine questionable. As mentioned by Nyenswah et
al. (2015), a huge number of ethical challenge were faced in the recruitment of healthcare
workers for Ebola vaccine. For example, vaccination programs for healthcare professionals
who were looking after the care concerns of Ebola affected patients within home care settings
were not prioritized. This was a clear breach of the ethical standards and programs. As

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mentioned by Coltart, Johnson & Whitty (2015), the success rate of the experimental vaccine
needs to be reviewed as part of the ethics process. In the lack of clarity a greater part of the
population might be prone to infection and diseases. Additionally, the study products need to
be reviewed as per the Trade related prospects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS)
agreement (Henao-Restrepo et al., 2017). Though, in December 23rd 2016 a highly effective
vaccine against the Ebola virus have been developed in Geneva. The vaccine has been found
to be highly protective. However, little had been discovered and diagnosed regrading the side
effects of administration of the vaccine. Additionally the patent rights further made free
distribution of the drug outside of Geneva difficult (Shoman, Karafillakis & Rawaf, 2017).
Public health management and prevention of Ebola
There are number of public health management strategies for Ebola. Some of these
measures have been implemented for prevention of the healthcare workers returning from the
ebola affected area. For example, maintaining a register for healthcare workers enrolled in
EVD protection and care ("Ebola virus disease", 2018). As mentioned by Gee & Skovdal
(2018), providing effective training sessions to the healthcare workers deployed in the care of
the Ebola patients. The healthcare workers deployed were made educate regarding the
different aspects of incubation, clinical presentation and transmission. They were further
instructed on maintaining effective protective measures such as wearing face masks and hand
gloves while dealing with the patients. This needs to be followed by individual exposure
assessment which will help in evaluating the level of exposure an individual had to particular
pathogens. This is because implementing quarantine at the level of the healthcare
professionals can help in providing greater amount of safety to the population at large
("Department of Health | Ebola", 2018). As prescribed by WHO the healthcare professionals
who has retuned from the infected areas were kept under strict monitoring for 21 days

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("Ebola virus disease", 2018). Some of the vital signs were monitored for the healthcare
workers such as body temperature. It should be ensured that no-attendance of the healthcare
workers are maintained during the assessment period.
Additionally, the patient needs to be kept in quarantine during the disease period.
Every article used by the patient should be properly disinfected and disposed safely rightly
after use. The clinical set up should be prepared rightly for receiving an infected patient using
Infection prevention and control measures (IPC) ("Department of Health | Ebola", 2018) .
The travel or contact history of the patient should be taken in full detail. This will further help
in understanding the level or the degree of exposure of the patients. The case investigation
includes identification of close contacts which could further help in extending the quarantine
measures. As mentioned by Bradbury-Jones & Clark (2017), the patients should be provided
counselling on the transmission risks. This can further reduce the chances of infection as by
knowing regarding the consequences one would not eventually risk the life of their near and
dear ones. The monitory of health (MOH) has advised effective testing strategies to ensure
that the body fluids of the patients are free of viruses ("Ebola Virus - Ministry of Health",
2018). It is only after passing such criteria that the patients are released from the acute care
setup. The items use by the patient in different wards should be kept separate and properly
sterilised before separation from the patients. One of the most important aspect which had
been focused upon the by the healthcare team is providing effective health education to the
population. As mentioned by Coltart, Johnson & Whitty (2015), awareness regarding the
modes of transmission can help in reducing the rates of contraction of the disease.
Conclusion
The current assignment focuses on the aspect of globalisation and its effect upon the
health of the community. The assignment discusses the evil effects of globalisation with

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reference to the contraction and management of Ebola. Ebola had become a health hazard in
the 2014-15 quarter when a large mass of people who had travelled to West Africa with
regards to work had been exposed to the deadly virus. The disease was carried through the
immigrants in different countries and spread through body fluids. The assignment had further
discussed the affectivity of vaccination with regards to controlling the rate of epidemic.
However, there have been biopolitical disputes with regards to sharing the vaccination rights
with different countries which have made the people more exposed to disease and pathogen.

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References
Alirol, E., Kuesel, A. C., Guraiib, M. M., de la Fuente-Núñez, V., Saxena, A., & Gomes, M.
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Bradbury-Jones, C., & Clark, M. (2017). Globalisation and global health: issues for
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