Ebola Research Paper

In late 2014 Ebola was all over the news. Everywhere telling about how it is spreading all over Africa and even starting to come to the United States. Today Ebola is still a problem, a disease which most people do not know much about it, other than it is scary. Ebola has a lot more to it other than just that, with its own history, symptoms and tries for a cure and its effect on society. Ebola has a history that dates all the way back to 1976. According to the World Health Organization website the “Ebola virus disease first appeared in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks, one in Nzara, Sudan, and the other in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo” (“Ebola Virus Disease”). The virus seemed to appear in both Sudan and Congo at about the same time,

All three men died within two weeks of catching the disease. A brother of one of the workers caught the disease from nursing his sick brother but recovered after two weeks. He was able to tell about the symptoms he and his brother experienced. As all three workers visited the hospital before their death, they received care as well as spreading the disease like one did with his brother (Report of a WHO/International Study Team 248). A similar outbreak started in the Democratic Republic of Congo, hospitalizing many patients. “Five syringes and needles were issued to the nursing staff each morning for use at the outpatient department, the prenatal clinic, and the impatient wards. These syringes and needles were apparently not sterilized between their use on different patients but rinsed in a pan of warm water. At the end of the day they were sometimes boiled” (Report of an International Commission.

This virus is quite harmful, causing many symptoms in people who catch the virus. “3 patients with Ebola reporting a temperature of 100.4 °F (38 °C) or greater, or compatible symptoms (severe headache, sore throat, malaise, muscle pain, diarrhea, vomiting, rash, or unexplained bleeding)” (Chung). Most of these symptoms can be mistaken with the flu. This can lead people to believe that they only have the flu when they have something much worse. Another issue with the symptoms is that “Ebola is detected in the blood only after an onset of symptoms; the main sign was a fever, which accompanied the rise in circulating virus within the patient’s body. It usually took a couple of days for the virus levels to rise to be detected in the body (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015)” ("Care Of An Ebola Patient, Part 1/2: Setting Up"). This shows that until symptoms start there is no way to know if you contracted the disease. Patients who are seen with these symptoms are isolated. Then checked to see if further testing is needed. If the result of these tests is negative, patients with containing symptoms without an alternative diagnosis undergo additional Ebola testing. Patients are only release if they improve or get over their symptoms for 24 hours or the tests are negative after 72 hours (Chung). With all these symptoms and tests, there is currently no cure to Ebola. Unlike most diseases there is no