Ebola: A Hot Topic

Recently, there have been Ebola patients making their way into the United States. The first actual contracted case outside of Africa surfaced a few days ago in Madrid, Spain (10/8/14). But, another question that we are asking is: should Americans be worried with the recent case that had arrived in Texas?

 

Before we start, we must first understand the actual Ebola Virus. Ebola is an infectious and deadly disease if left untreated. It causes major malfunctions throughout the entire human body in a short amount of time.

 

Symptoms include:

• Fever
• Headache
• Chest/abdomen pain
• Trouble breathing
• 
  

  Photo credit: Cynthia Goldsmith content providers: CDC PHIL ID#1832

  Excessive perspiration
• Internal bleeding throughout body
• Inability to coagulate wounds
• Vomiting (bloody vomit with black speckles)
   

 

This disease is mainly spread though contact with an infected body/host. But, in some cases it has been able to be transmitted though air contact (being within the same airspace as an infected host). For example, in the book “The Hot Zone” by Richard Preston written in 1989, the American army unit that had dealt with extreme biohazards had ran an experiment, where they placed monkeys that were infected with the Ebola Virus in the same room as monkeys that had not been infected. These two separate focuses of study were kept far enough apart to where they could not touch each other, or come into contact with any waste products. After the infected monkeys had died off (after a little over a two week period) the scientists had discovered that the two “placebo” monkeys had contracted the Ebola Virus. In which case they had died shortly thereafter. To sum it all up, this virus can be spread in numerous ways, and they only thing that can help prevent it is taking extra precautions toward daily hygiene. Do not touch any blood, vomit, or let anyone sneeze on you is a general rule of thumb. Also, take extra time to wash out any cuts, and properly bandage them – as Ebola can transfer through it and into your bloodstream. 

 

If you do begin to exhibit symptoms for 2 or more days, please seek medical attention. Take necessary means of preventing the spread of Ebola to others (wear a mask, bandage yourself, and wear clean clothes/shower). Symptoms can take up to 21 days to actually begin to show.

 

Back to the original question: “Should Americans be worried with the recent case that had arrived in Texas?” My response is: Even though he has passed, we should not worry about this virus as long as you pay attention to those around you, do not become paranoid. Also, the majority of the cases of the Ebola Virus are in Western Africa (see picture below), and have not quite began to be contracted in the U.S. Finally, there are the beginnings of Ebola vaccinations being tested on humans in Africa going on as we speak. Government officials are saying that this looks very promising. These tests are going on all over the world, some are effective on primates and some believe it is necessary to make the transition to humans, so this "epidemic" should not last for too long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Photo credit: Mikael Häggström. Updated version provided by: Brian Groen

 

 

Sources:

Greg Botelho, Laura Smith-Spark, and Laura Perez Maestro at http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/08/world/europe/ebola-spain/index.html have the full story.
All the information I gathered was from: http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/first-phase-of-ebola-vaccine-human-trials-set-to-begin/
Link to Mikael Häggström’s wiki media page with several links to his presentations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mikael_H%C3%A4ggstr%C3%B6m