The Ebola Virus Continues to Spread

By Maria Fernanda Pereira Ywazaki on September 16, 2014

For months, West Africa has been plagued with the deadly Ebola virus. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that the health centres in Liberia are filled to their maximum capacity.  This outbreak has become the biggest one in history with more than 2,000 deaths, and 4,000 infected.

There are many issues surrounding this virus, two of them being myths and misinformation, starting with Hollywood movies such as Outbreak that have made the disease into an uncontrollable outbreak that will turn into a pandemic. However, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Thomas Frieden, assures that the disease can be stopped. He stated that part of the reason Ebola is such a feared virus is because a movie had been made about it. This is not the only reason for the fear, though.  The virus is not only deadly most of the times, but some of the symptoms are rather “ugly.” Because the body cannot keep up with all the clotting, Ebola turns into a very bloody disease. Nevertheless, Ebola is not contagious or airborne–like the flu–but it is infectious.  This means that the virus is transmitted by direct contact–be it small–with infected bodily fluids, which will spread throughout the body quickly.

Ebola Particles. Photo courtesy of NIAID

The virus has proven difficult to control for several reasons.  Healthcare workers are sometimes stoned away from places because people fear that they will be diagnosed with Ebola and taken to the health centers.  For them, this is equal to a death sentence because people never come back.  People are scared of contracting the virus so they may even shun or attack those whose family are known to have died or are diagnosed with the disease.  Not only that, but rumours and articles published in newspapers create confusion for people. Newspapers stating that salt water is a cure for the disease, only for another to state that people have died using that “cure.”  In the past months, people have become more and more weary of the disease and there has been an increase in cooperation.  In Liberia, there is a unit specifically to dispose safely of bodies suspected to be contaminated with Ebola. Previously, the unit were rarely informed of the cases, but now they receive at least one call a day.
Another issue aside from people’s lack of cooperation, is that the previous methods to contain other viruses–such as SARS–contact tracing, is proving challenging.  Contact tracing is following all the people the infected person was in direct contact with and could have contracted the disease, then, check-up on those people on a daily basis for 21 days and see if they show any symptoms.  If they do, they are quarantined and people they were in contact with, are also traced.  The process is simple enough, if not slightly long on how thorough those doing the tracking have to be.  The problem with this system in Africa, is that many of these countries’ slums are a web of streets with no name, and people take their doors with them when moving to save money.  On top of that, many times the addresses given were point-references, this makes the tracking extra difficult, or in some cases, impossible.  Not only that, but one untraced person could lead to another outbreak, or prevent the control of this one.
The myths and misinformation of the disease have made Ebola into one of the scariest and deadliest viruses in the world.  This, coupled with the overwhelming amount of victims, means there is a shortage of staff for treating, diagnosing, and helping the patients, and for contact tracing.  The WHO has already declared that there is a lack in facilities to take care of the patients, and a lack on health personnel.  It doesn’t help that in several occasions the health personnel also became infected with the virus. Nevertheless, doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers are still volunteering to help stop this virus.
Ebola has already spread to The Democratic Republic of Congo, which shares borders with nine other nations.  This could prove precarious.  The U.S government and the U.K started rapid research and testing on vaccines in hopes of developing a cure faster.  The virus is still far from a pandemic, and should the situation reach us here, due to a better city infrastructure and better equipped hospitals, it is not believed that an outbreak of such a magnitude will happen in developed societies.  However, what concerns those at WHO, aside from all the casualties happening, is that further spreading of the disease could cause a mutation that might be worse. The Ebola virus, though, is far from being another black plague.

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