Ebola Virus And The United States

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The Ebola virus has come and gone through the United States, West Africa, and many other countries multiple times throughout history. Ebola is a rare, deadly disease transmitted through bodily fluids. Despite being a fatal disease, the 2013 through 2015 Ebola outbreak has kept a surprisingly low fatality rate of below fifty percent. However, this outbreak has the highest number of infected persons compared to any past Ebola outbreaks in history. Most of the infected persons reported are in West African countries: Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. One of the countries that Ebola has infiltrated but has not had a wide transmission is the United States. These are two polar opposite regions with different health policies and living environments. The United States is controlling the current Ebola outbreak better than West African countries because the United States has better health education, cleaner sanitation, and is taking precautionary measures for the transmission of Ebola nationally and globally.
Why is the current Ebola outbreak more controlled in the United States compared to West African countries?
Although the Ebola virus is widely discussed and known across the globe; the symptoms, transmission, and treatment for the disease is often unknown. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “Ebola… is a rare and deadly disease caused by infection with one of the Ebola virus strains,” which includes four identified different strains of the Ebola virus that causes the disease in humans (“Ebola Virus Disease”). The disease is transmitted from person to person, or animal to person, through “direct contact with blood and body fluids of a person already showing symptoms of Ebola” but cannot be spread through water or...

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... three West African countries are in their developing stages and trying to move forward; however, the Ebola outbreak was a major setback. The countries taking a step in the wrong direction due to the transmission of the Ebola virus is a negative, significant addition to global public health.
The rapid, widespread transmission in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon. The precautionary measures, including public health education and the better living conditions in the United States has allowed the United States to minimize the spread of the Ebola virus into four reported cases. However, due to the lack of health education, their failure to take any precautionary measures, and the poor living conditions in these three West African countries; the total number of Ebola virus incidents has reached a record high of 25,000 cases.

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