Over the past few months, Ebola has captured global attention due to the mass amounts of media coverage swarming the topic. While the general public might believe this recent pandemic to be the first of its kind, there have been several reported cases of the Ebola virus disease that date back to 1976 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. One contested issue that emerges from the current outbreak of the Ebola virus disease in West Africa is the treatment of healthcare workers who are returning to the United States after working with the infected people. Upon their return from Africa, state officials from New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and Florida, have mandated a 21 day quarantine, no matter the health status of the individual, in order to prevent …show more content…
Hickox served with Doctors Without Borders and spent four weeks in Sierra Leone, one of the three countries plagued by the Ebola virus disease, treating and taking care of infected patients. Upon her return to the United States in New Jersey on October 24th, she was sent to a local hospital and immediately put under quarantine. According to Hickox in an interview, the conditions of her mandatory quarantine were not adequate, as she did not have access to a shower in the room or a flushable toilet and the only means of communicating with the outside world was through a small window in the tent. Hickox, who tested negative for Ebola twice, believed that her forced quarantine was not only unnecessary, but inhumane and violated her basic human rights. The actions done by state officials were done solely out of fear, and to Hickox, “when fear wins, everyone …show more content…
A better alternative to public health action that can be taken in leu of an immediate quarantine, is active monitoring, which gives responsibility to the health department and local public health authorities to monitor the individual. In active monitoring, if the previously asymptomatic individual begins showing signs of Ebola symptoms, they can be immediately assessed, and if appropriate, isolated and treated. This method of monitoring is especially important because it identifies symptoms early on before it can reach the point where it becomes dangerous to the community. Friedman said in his address to the press that, “Fundamentally, people want to do the right thing. And what I’m hearing from returning health care workers and others is an interest in making sure that they are cared for effectively and they are responsible”. Active monitoring takes away the stigma of fear that prompts political figures to mandate forced quarantines and gives responsibility to the trained medical professionals who are aware that the sooner they get treatment for Ebola, the more likely they will survive. Active monitoring also allows the returning health care worker to remain in the comfort of their own homes as opposed to being
Zaire, Ebola, Sudan, and now, Reston. These are all level four hot viruses. That means there are no vaccines and there are no cures for these killers. In 1976 Ebola climbed out of its primordial hiding place in the jungles. of Africa, and in two outbreaks in Zaire and Sudan wiped out six hundred people.
In the New York Times interview of Richard Preston, the well renowned author of The Hot Zone, is conducted in order to shed some light on the recent Ebola outbreak and the peaked re-interest in his novel. The Hot Zone is articulated as “thriller like” and “horrifying.” Preston uses similar diction and style choices corresponding with his novel. By choosing to use these specific methods he is advertising and promoting The Hot Zone to the audience members that are interested in reading, and reaching out to those who read and enjoyed his novel. He continuously grabs and keeps the reader’s attention by characterizing and personifying Ebola as the “enemy [and] the invisible monster without a face” in order to give the spectators something to grasp and understand the Ebola virus. Along with characterization, Preston uses descriptions with laminate
Unlike those mentioned in The Hot Zone, I, as an average American citizen, can never relate to the experiences of having Marburg or Ebola. However, I can now visualize these experiences and understand the grave circumstances Americans went under and what the Central Africans had to endure. The Hot Zone depicts the onset of symptoms from Marburg and Ebola and the ease it can travel from one victim to the next. In the situation of Marburg, Charles Monet is infected and sitting on a twenty four hour flight while showing symptoms.(17,18 Preston) This is extremely eerie as monkeys had been infected with Ebola and Marburg just by breathing it.(224 Preston)
The Hot Zone is a true story about how the knowledge of the Ebola virus was first developed and the background behind it. The Ebola virus kills nine out of ten of its victims and it kills quickly and painfully. It is extremely contagious and the blood and vomit the victim lets out can spread the virus quickly. The Hot Zone goes into detail of the experience of getting to the bottom of the Ebola Virus.
In recent decades, there are high numbers of the disease are breaking out worldwide. West Africa could be one of the most frequent happen area of the incidence of disease. These diseases easy to be spread and them usually can cause high risk of death. Ebola, one of the fast transmissible viruses, outbreaking wide in West Africa area recently. Ebola has caused 5,459 deaths out of 15,351 (Reuters, 2014) cases identified in Africa and the number of death is still climbing.
The Ebola virus can be passed from one person into another by bodily contact. Airborne transmission of Ebola has not yet been confirmed, as there is no substantial evidence of this occurring. Researchers are still to this day observing the ways of transmission of this virus from one person to the next. In previous outbreaks, this infection has often occurred among hospital care workers or family members who were caring for an ill or dead person infected with the virus. Blood and body fluids contain large amounts of virus, thus transmission of the virus has also occurred as a result of hypodermic needles being reused in the treatment of patients. Under-financed health care facilities in countries such as Zaire, Gabon, and Sudan find reusing needles a common practice. This contributes the vast amount of fatalities of this virus in these cities.
Ebola hemorrhagic fever is a viral disease that was first recorded in 1976, when an outbreak occurred in Yambuku, Zaire, a country that was latter renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo (Walsh, Biek & Real, 2005). During the outbreak 318 cases were recorded of which 280 (88%) died. Later the same year, an outbreak occurred in Sudan where 284 cases were recorded with fatality rate of 53%. The disease and the virus that cause it are named after River Ebola that passes though Yambuku. In the USA, Ebola killed several monkeys in Reston, Virginia in 1989 (Barton, 2006; CDC, 2000). Despite several other outbreaks, the disease has neither medically approved pre-exposure nor post-exposure interventions. However, ongoing research shows optimistic signs.
Many states and colonies across the globe issued detailed sets of directives to their residents on what exactly they should do if they come into contact with the illness. One such example is the directive issued by T.W.H. Holmes, the Secretary of the Victoria Board of Public Health in Australia. The directive details the symptoms, complications, treatment, and prevention of the disease. Something very common during the outbreak of any pandemic is the use of quarantines to separate the sick and the healthy. In fact, that is the first order for prevention of disease in T.W.H. Holme...
There are currently 40 emerging infectious diseases, that are at risk of spreading from country to country, due to the increase of people traveling. Diseases like Ebola and the Zika virus pose a global threat due to the possible rapid rate of transmission from human-to-human, that occurs with exposure to someone who is symptomatic and seropositive (World Health Organization, 2016-a). When there is an infectious disease breakout, public health practitioners and physicians, must make quick decisions regarding isolation of a patient exhibiting symptoms and using quarantine for those who have been exposed to someone symptomatic or seropositive. Although, a public health framework is followed to make the decisions for isolation and
Ebola from everyone’s point of view is seen as inferno. Dr. Steven Hatch’s memorable journey began with him volunteering to leave for Liberia in 2013 to work at a hospital in Monrovia to fight Ebola in one of its most affected areas. There were only a few patients with Ebola when he arrived. The number of patients rapidly increased over his time in Liberia. After six months Ebola was declared a world health emergency and not only were ordinary people outside of the hospital getting the virus but the medical personnel that were tending to the patients had caught it and some of them had even died.
Thesis Statement: The deadly virus Ebola is killing thousands of innocent people world wide, but there are some simple steps that are being taken to prevent this coming tide of death.
This allowed the cells to multiply to within the billions of trillions in a short period of time. They had been allowed to into the drainage system infecting the water supply of the population. Every household within the United States had tainted water, making it easier to spread the noocytes from person-to-person. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had been informed of a “plague” as the cells have already spread across the continent. This led to the cancellation of “all intra- and international” flights with travellers from the United States quarantined to prevent potential contamination (121). A procedure of this magnitude conjures up images of men in hazardous suits having citizens strip down and sprayed with sterilizing chemicals. The sudden isolation of the country by the CDC has caused panic and chaos with communication between major cities failing. Any physical contact other countries had with North America has been cut off. The plague had the North American continent isolated with countries ceasing to have physical contact created this mood of an apocalyptic setting throughout the story. The story then examines the apocalyptic plague through Michael
...ary 2014)”. The Ebola epidemic helps remind the U.S. That other nations are there to work with them, and unite to prevent a rapid growing disease. CDC partners with programs from other nations, such as the Global Disease Detection Centers, and the Field Epidemiology Training Program, which work to stop the Ebola virus. Information systems will grow stronger, more partnerships dedicated to stopping outbreaks will be formed and laboratory security will also grow. The writer of the paper cannot agree more to this.
Biomedical research has allowed child care and preschool programs along with numerous other workplaces and academic institutions to be much more knowledgeable about identifying their preferred emergency response system (Department of Health, 2006b). This preparedness is not just for bioterrorism attacks, but can promote a healthier atmosphere with less absenteeism in general. On a daily basis a vast majority of Americans come into contact with countless people who may or may not be ill. Diseases are easily passed from person-to-person around the world very rapidly. Many of the offered resources and information from the Department of Health and its available publications “can also help in other types of emergencies” like natural disasters, for example. (Department of Health, 2006b).