Updated:

Understanding Ebola: Symptoms, Transmission, and Prevention Measures Essay (Article)

Exclusively available on Available only on IvyPanda® Made by Human No AI

Haemorrhage from your ears, mouth, skin, and every conceivable part of the body was the picture painted by the media. The one thing that was uniform in all renditions of the deadly disease was apathy, poverty, remote areas in Africa, and lack of modern amenities.

However, all these changed when the first victim of the disease, a doctor, infected a nurse in The United States of America (Chappell and Rampton par.1). All hell broke loose and overnight, quarantines and screening areas in airports became the norm (Belluz, par.11). Ebola, the disease that had achieved notoriety for its high mortality rate threatened to become a global problem.

Ebola is a viral disease that attacks all the cells of the body in a systematic process starting with the white blood cells (Tam, par 14). It takes about two to 21 days before symptoms appear. The virus remains active in the host’s body even after the host is dead. Moreover, patients who are recovering from an infection continue to spread the Ebola virus through breast milk or semen for up to seven weeks (World Health Organization, par.10).

Ebola virus spreads through animals such as chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelopes, and porcupines (World Health Organization, par.7). The animals may be either ill, or dead. These animals are known to host the virus naturally. However, to be infected, one has to be in close contact with body fluids or organs of the infected animal (World Health Organization, par.6). Human-to-human transmission of virus is similar to that between human and animal.

The initial symptoms include fever, headache, muscle pain, fatigue, and sore throat. Later, victims show symptoms of impaired kidney and liver function, vomiting, diarrhoea, and rash with possible signs of internal and external bleeding (World Health Organization). A low white blood cell and platelet count coupled with elevated liver enzymes will be shown in a laboratory test (World Health Organization, par.11).

Due to the similarity of the symptoms Ebola shows with other diseases prevalent in the tropics, such as malaria, doctors conduct further tests. After doctors ascertain the infection, treatment ensues using supportive care and treatment of itemised symptoms to reduce the mortality rate (World Health Organization, par.12). No licensed product is available for treatment, but there exist experimental drugs.

Prevention includes reducing wildlife-to-human and human-to-human transmission, and outbreak containment measures such as proper disposal of fluids and burial of infected dead (World Health Organization, par. 16-20).

Works Cited

Belluz, Julia. . 2014.

Chappell, Tami and Roberta Rampton. . 2014.

Tam, Ruth. . 2014.

World Health Organization. . 2014.

More related papers Related Essay Examples
Cite This paper
You're welcome to use this sample in your assignment. Be sure to cite it correctly

Reference

IvyPanda. (2020, April 1). Understanding Ebola: Symptoms, Transmission, and Prevention Measures. https://ivypanda.com/essays/ebola-virus-disease/

Work Cited

"Understanding Ebola: Symptoms, Transmission, and Prevention Measures." IvyPanda, 1 Apr. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/ebola-virus-disease/.

References

IvyPanda. (2020) 'Understanding Ebola: Symptoms, Transmission, and Prevention Measures'. 1 April.

References

IvyPanda. 2020. "Understanding Ebola: Symptoms, Transmission, and Prevention Measures." April 1, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/ebola-virus-disease/.

1. IvyPanda. "Understanding Ebola: Symptoms, Transmission, and Prevention Measures." April 1, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/ebola-virus-disease/.


Bibliography


IvyPanda. "Understanding Ebola: Symptoms, Transmission, and Prevention Measures." April 1, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/ebola-virus-disease/.

If, for any reason, you believe that this content should not be published on our website, please request its removal.
Updated:
This academic paper example has been carefully picked, checked and refined by our editorial team.
No AI was involved: only quilified experts contributed.
You are free to use it for the following purposes:
  • To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
  • As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
  • As a template for you assignment
Privacy Settings

IvyPanda uses cookies and similar technologies to enhance your experience, enabling functionalities such as:

  • Basic site functions
  • Ensuring secure, safe transactions
  • Secure account login
  • Remembering account, browser, and regional preferences
  • Remembering privacy and security settings
  • Analyzing site traffic and usage
  • Personalized search, content, and recommendations
  • Displaying relevant, targeted ads on and off IvyPanda

Please refer to IvyPanda's Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy for detailed information.

Required Cookies & Technologies
Always active

Certain technologies we use are essential for critical functions such as security and site integrity, account authentication, security and privacy preferences, internal site usage and maintenance data, and ensuring the site operates correctly for browsing and transactions.

Site Customization

Cookies and similar technologies are used to enhance your experience by:

  • Remembering general and regional preferences
  • Personalizing content, search, recommendations, and offers

Some functions, such as personalized recommendations, account preferences, or localization, may not work correctly without these technologies. For more details, please refer to IvyPanda's Cookies Policy.

Personalized Advertising

To enable personalized advertising (such as interest-based ads), we may share your data with our marketing and advertising partners using cookies and other technologies. These partners may have their own information collected about you. Turning off the personalized advertising setting won't stop you from seeing IvyPanda ads, but it may make the ads you see less relevant or more repetitive.

Personalized advertising may be considered a "sale" or "sharing" of the information under California and other state privacy laws, and you may have the right to opt out. Turning off personalized advertising allows you to exercise your right to opt out. Learn more in IvyPanda's Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy.

1 / 1