Ebola Virus Disease: Global Health Perspective and Challenges

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of Ebola Virus Disease, exploring its origins, transmission, and global impact. It delves into the epidemiology of the disease, tracing its outbreaks and case fatality rates, with a focus on the 2013-2015 West African epidemic. The essay examines the modes of transmission, symptoms, and the challenges in treatment and prevention, including the delay in vaccine development. Furthermore, it discusses public health management strategies, challenges faced by healthcare professionals, and the varying perceptions of the disease across different regions, including the United States and Liberia. The essay concludes by highlighting the importance of awareness, accurate information, and effective public health interventions in managing and preventing the spread of Ebola.

Running Head: EBOLA VIRUS DISEASE
Ebola Virus Disease
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Ebola Virus Disease
Introduction
Global health has come out in the past twenty years as an academic discipline, a
collection of problems and as a discourse which has not yet established clear aims, principles,
and boundaries. Global health unevenly integrates the concerns and logic of biosecurity and
humanitarianism as well as is also inherently linked to the responsibilities and roles of nations,
their obligations to effectively safeguard people’s health and their capacity and willingness to do
so. These sides of global health inherently interconnected and overlapping, via various actors
within international health may recognize themselves more or less with each of them. Ebola is a
global health concern which requires biosecurity and humanitarianism policies (Hodge, Barraza,
Measer & Agrawal, 2014). Understanding the disease needs consideration of institutional, social,
political structures across numerous scales. However, it starts with the machinations and
vulnerabilities of the body are of key concerns regarding the disease; the body infected by the
virus is shown as an objected of disgust, mystery, care, compassion, and pity. The most
significant descriptions of the disease in the news, as well as other public fields, amplified the
components of fear and disgust which are entailed in the traditional representations of Ebola.
This paper will discuss the prevalence of Ebola Virus Disease, treatment, prevention, perceptions
and challenges faced by healthcare professionals in handling the disease.
Epidemiology of the disease
Ebola was named after river valley in the modern-day Democratic Republic of Congo,
formerly Zaire, where it was first identified, and started its publicity in the limelight of an
epidemic. Ebola is one of the members of viruses in RNA known as Filoviridae. However, it

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should be noted that filoviridae were identified nine years before the first outbreak of the disease
in 1967, in individuals who were exposed to blood from green monkeys which had Marburg
virus imported from Uganda. Members of filoviridae include Rhabdoviridae and
Paramyxoviridae family as well as order Mononegavirales. In these families, there is a unit
genus, filovirus as well as a distinction into two genotypes, that is, Ebola and Marburg. Initially,
medical health professionals assumed that Ebola outbreaks in Zaire were a single event linked to
an infected individual who had traveled between the locations in which there was an outbreak.
Nevertheless, medical health scientists later came to realize that the two outbreaks were majorly
caused by separate viruses, that is, Sudan ebolavirus and Zaire ebolavirus (Pavlik, Lategan &
Verter, 2018).
It was later concluded that the virus came from two various sources as well as spread
distinctly to individuals in each of the areas affected. Epidemiologic and viral data propose that
the Ebola virus existed even before these documented outbreaks happened. The case fatality of
the disease is estimated at 90% in human beings. In 2013 outbreak in West Africa, that is,
Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, it was documented that the rate of fatality of the disease was
about 90%. This was a global public health emergency because as of November 2nd, 2014, there
were about 5745 cases in Guinea, 5000 in Sierra Leone and 9900 in Liberia. It should be noted
that there has been a shift in the epidemiology of the Ebola virus in the regions and nations
affected since the recent outbreak. Empirical information collected in West Africa in early 2014
and mid-2015 showed that there were 14910 confirmed, 2080 likely as well as 9100 suspected
cases with 11007 mortality. Nevertheless, a reducing trend has been noted since the start of the
outbreak (Pavlik, Lategan & Verter, 2018). A reduction of 92.09% in Guinea as well as 98% in
Sierra Leone, with no reported cases of the Ebola virus in Liberia, was documented between late

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2014 and early 2015. There were cases of decline in the rate of deaths due to the enhanced
international aid and healthcare delivery not only in Africa but also in other affected nations.
Mode of transmission of the virus
The Ebola virus can infect human beings through mucous membrane in the mouth, nose
or eyes or broken skin. If a person gets into contact with the body fluids like infected urine,
feces, blood, saliva, sweat, bread milk and semen he or she can also spread the Ebola virus.
Moreover, if a person gets into contact with a sharp object which had previously used by Ebola
virus patients, then he or she may also be at risk of being infected by the virus. Contact with the
infected primates or bats monkeys or apes has the potential to cause the spread of Ebola.
However, it is key to note that the Ebola virus is not spread through food, air, and water. There
were cases of individuals who go infected by the virus by handling infected bats and bush meat.
Empirical studies have proven that insects such as mosquitoes cannot spread to transmitting the
virus. It should be noted that the only species affected entail monkeys, bats, and human beings.
Moreover, when a person who has been infected by the disease medically recovers from the
disease, the disease cannot be spread to the unaffected individual. Nevertheless, the case is very
different from men because Ebola can live in the semen even after recovery.
Therefore, it is recommended or advised that a person should stay away from sexual
intercourse for at least three months. It is also prudent that oral sex should be avoided during this
time. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2014), there have not been
any medically recorded cases of infection by sexual intercourse. The life cycle of the Ebola
virus, as well as the mode of entry in the human body, is yet to be recorded. It has been proposed
that contact of people with an infected animal can spread the virus which later can spread the
disease from one person to another person.

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Signs and symptoms of the disease
Ebola virus disease is a severe acute condition mostly characterized by a sudden onset of
intense weakness, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, and fever. The onset symptoms are
consequently followed by diarrhea, impaired liver and kidney function, vomiting, and rash and
certain cases both external and internal bleeding are reported (De la Sen, Ibeas, Alonso-Quesada
& Nistal, 2017). Findings from the laboratory include low platelet, and white blood cells count as
well as increased liver enzymes. Individuals are infectious of the disease as long as their
secretions and blood contain the virus. It should be noted that men who have fully recovered
from the disease can still transmit the virus via their semen for up to eight weeks.
Treatment and prevention of the disease
Numerous ill individuals need intensive supportive health and care. Individuals are often
dehydrated and need oral rehydration with solutions having intravenous or electrolytes fluids. It
should be noted that no specific treatment is currently available for use in human beings or
animals. There are no licensed vaccines for animals or human beings. When there is no effective
vaccine and treatment, awareness creation on the risk factors of the disease infection as well as
protective measures people can take is the only means of reducing or minimizing human
infection and mortality (Ahmad, Usman, Khan & Imran, 2016).
Why there is a vaccine for Ebola Virus Disease yet?
Part of the reason why there is not a specific vaccine for Ebola Virus Disease is that since
a virus and not bacteria cause the disease, medical researchers have found it hard designing
treatments for viral disease as compared to bacterial diseases (Piorkowski et al. 2017). Most
antiviral therapies have dragged behind compared to bacterial therapy. Viruses are considered as

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small molecules which produce only a few proteins. Thus, there are few targets in management
and treatment. Therefore, it is hard to come up with vaccines for the disease (Area, NdaÏrou,
Nieto, Silva & Torres, 2018).
Challenges involved in the management of the Ebola Virus
Some healthcare professionals like the nurses became infected with the Ebola virus while
offering treatment to their patients. The main mode of transmission was coming into contact with
the infected patient, and the strict public health precautions were not properly followed during
the treatment process. Moreover, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention
(2014), those who went to mourn and console with their lost ones contracted the disease due to
the direct contact with the deceased individual. There is a huge risk in managing and controlling
the disease which involves a dead body’s collection as well as isolating the infected individuals.
It should be that any physical contact with the infected individual was viewed as a death sentence
because the Ebola virus is highly contagious. Clinical stuff used in the fight against the disease is
the most at risk (Imran, Khan, Ansari & Shah, 2017).
The utilization of personal protective equipment, safe burial and isolation are the
parameters which were being done to prevent the spread of the disease. Some public health
professionals were reluctant to participate in the prevention and fight against the disease. The
disease management was a major challenge to the public health officials since it was highly
demanding and the public health officials were in short supply of the effective and appropriate
personal protective equipment. In places that were greatly hit by the disease, doctors and nurses
had lost their lives during the management of the disease. Thus, the present nurses and doctors
feared to participate in the prevention and management of the disease especially in Africa (Tulu,
Tian & Wu, 2017).

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Knowledge and perception of the Ebola in various parts of the globe
In the United States of America, the outbreak of Ebola was a huge concern and threat to
the policymakers and public health officials (Rainisch et al. 2015). It is key to note that the
country overestimated the probability of contracting the disease although it was likely impossible
for the nation to be affected (Pițigoi et al. 2018). The overestimation by the Americans was also
due to the psychological science of imagination and perception regarding the individual’s beliefs,
that is, the mental model concerning the means of transmission, epidemiology, and lethality
among other parameters. Since the consequent result of the disease was death during that time,
there was a greater likelihood of the public to dread it more than another disease in the country
(Muhammad Altaf & Atangana, 2019). The state raised concerns, public health officials as well
as the federal in the county to offer information on the actual and true value of probability of
contracting the disease. An empirical study done in November 2014 and February 2014 among
the pilgrims of Australia who had returned from Haji in October 2014 revealed that the pilgrims
had received Ebola Virus travel advice, thus, were more informed than the rest of the Australians
who did not receive any advice.
Nevertheless, about 41% of the pilgrims had no accurate information on the way the
disease is transmitted (Jacobsen et al. 2016). The more educated and younger individuals were
found to be knowledgeable and knew a lot of information more than the rest of the people
(Perkins & Kessel, 2015). At the beginning of the outbreak of the disease in 2014, some of the
people from Liberia believed that the disease was a curse, that is, an evil spirit or a form of
poisoning (Comfort, Bert & Jee, 2016). However, later they released that Ebola was a real
disease in the country. A certain musician from Liberia, Charles Yegba composed a song
creating awareness among the people on the prevalence of the disease. Being among the people

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who did not believe that Ebola exists, he composed the song with the hope of creating awareness
and inspiring hope for the affected individuals during the outbreak of the disease. In his lyrics, he
identified that the symptoms and signs of the disease and advised the public to seek medical
intervention as well as the containment of the disease (Adongo et al. 2016).
Even though physical contact is considered as a big concern in the prevalence of the
disease, religious beliefs and practices entailing very close contact with a person who is dead
caused more concern in this regard, for instance, in Sierra Leone and Liberia, cultural
preparation of cadavers entails touching, washing as well as kissing. Furthermore, braiding of the
women hair and shaving the head of males is entailed the burial practice. Public health officials
have proposed that nurses and other staffs educate people on the dangers of handling of a dead
body especially coming into contact with a dead person who was infected with the Ebola virus.
Conclusion
Ebola Virus Disease is a very dangerous disease not only in Africa but also in other
countries of the world. The modes of transmission are mainly coming into contact with the
infected and affected patient. Thus, much precaution and care should be taken when handling a
person who has been infected by the disease. Cultural and religious practices that encourage
coming into contact with a dead person should be avoided, and sexual intercourse with infected
should be avoided. Since there are no licensed treatment and vaccines, public health officials
should create awareness on preventing and managing the disease.

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