Kaylee Kuhrt
Mr. Seigler
BIM
October 21, 2014
Origins of Ebola and How it Spreads
Genetic data confirms that the Ebola epidemic in West Africa is being spread from human to human, not through contact with infected animals like many have started to believe. The findings emphasize the need for better public health measures to keep the epidemic from spreading more widely among people rather than devoting more resources to tracking down infected animals. People need to care and help to stop Ebola. (Sharf)
An international group of researchers reported that genetic analysis also reveals that the Ebola virus strains infecting people in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria originated in Central Africa in 2004. The team sequenced the genomes
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The version of the virus that made it to Sierra Leone branched from the Guinean strain in February, Stephen Gire, an infectious disease researcher at Harvard University and the Broad Institute, and colleagues report. The virus is a variety of Zaire Ebola virus but carries 341 genetic changes not seen in previous outbreaks.
Some virus strains in Sierra Leone have been more pervasive than others. One particular mutation appeared in 50 patients, suggesting those people shared a chain of infection. However, it is not clear whether that mutation or any other makes the virus more transmissible, says Sébastien Calvignac-Spencer, an evolutionary biologist at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin. Some viral versions may rise to prominence by chance, he says, as might be the case if a mutant virus originated in a very popular person and many people caught the virus at his or her funeral.
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Rep. Jackie Walorski is asking that the federal government consider a temporary ban on travel from West Africa in order to prevent the further spread of Ebola in the U.S. "With reports that there could be as many as two dozen people in the U.S. infected with Ebola by the end of the month, I share the same frustrations as our fellow Americans about the president's refusal to consider a temporary travel ban into the United States from countries afflicted with the virus," Walorski, R-Jimtown, said in a statement. (Unknown)
She added, "The administration needs to reassure the American People that we are taking every precaution necessary to stop the spread of Ebola, and I look forward to hearing more on how they plan to proceed."
The Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention has so far resisted calls for a travel ban, saying it would make it more difficult to track travelers who may have been exposed to the virus and complicate the delivery of necessary aid to the affected areas.
The U.S. has sent many doctors, nurses and other helpers to West Africa to help treat, take care of, and find a cure for the Ebola virus. They will find a cure for Ebola! (Unknown)
Works
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
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.
The general geographic region that has been most affected by the different strains of the Ebola virus is Central Africa, namely the cities of Zaire, Sudan, and Gabon. The first known occurrence of Ebola was found in a man by the name of Charles Monet, who had currently taken a trip...
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...
Ebola Zaire was identified in 1976 in Northern Zaire and was the first documented appearance of the virus.
This virus is similar to Ebola, because it started in the same place. Lab workers in Germany, in 1967, contracted the new virus while working with African Green Monkeys, which had the virus. The virus is described as a hemorrhagic fever. It has a fatality rate up to 90% and spreads through human to human contact. The first symptoms can be as simple as a fever and a headache, then can progress to organ failure, and fatal internal bleeding.
“The fruit bat may be Ebola’s ‘natural reservoir’- the creature in which the virus finds its primary home.” (p.15) The virus in bats evolve over time and cross over to another species. In this case, Ebola was crossed over into humans and the virus could become worse and worse as it evolves more. Therefore, the diversity of life is seen in the virus itself and the organisms who happen to obtain the
In 1976 the first two Ebola outbreaks were recorded. In Zaire and western Sudan five hundred and fifty people reported the horrible disease. Of the five hundred and fifty reported three hundred and forty innocent people died. Again in 1995 Ebola reportedly broke out in Zaire, this time infecting over two hundred and killing one hundred and sixty. (Bib4, Musilam, 1)
According to the World Health Organization (2014) “Ebola first took place in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks, one in Nzara, Sudan.., in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. [and the] latter occurred in a village near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name”. The disease has also started spreading through countries such as Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia (which are West African countries). The United States of America had their first case of Ebola on September 30, 2014, when a man traveling back from Liberia was diagnosed with the disease in Dallas, Texas (CDC 2014). The man did not show symptoms until he reached the United States.
When you think of the disease Ebola most people become unnerved because how contagious this disease is. The Ebola outbreak is in many countries but it originated from West Africa were animals such as monkeys carried the deadly virus that humans contracted and the virus is killing humans daily. The infection rate is raising daily along over three thousand deaths from the disease (Central Disease Control). The main argument I am making is should Americans who travel outside of the United States be allowed back into the states if they travel to a country with a high rate of Ebola cases because of the chance of that person contracting the disease and then bringing it back to the states. The only exception is if an American citizen needs to come back into the United States for a serious reason I strongly believe that any person who has possibly became in contact with the disease should have to stay in the country they traveled to for twenty one days isolated in a hospital for observation due to the chance of contracting the disease and bringing it back to the states.
Just the thought of it spreading in the US made us feel helpless. As we were listening to the news and thinking we were overwhelmingly frightened especially because it was now in the US and there was no effective FDA approved vaccine or cure. However after doing some research of my own I found out that we really shouldn’t be scared because the US is very well prepared when it comes to controlling and manipulating diseases like
A particle country, I will discuss is the Dominican Republic. There were 33 missionaries from the United States travel to the country for Humanitarian Service. Around February 2008 to help with reconstruction of an urban community that was destroyed by the storm Olga in December of 2007.Their stay was only a week long. They slept in tropical-style house in the urban Santiago. On their way back to the United States fourteen of them were infected with dengue fever. Before they attended the trip only two of them was educated on the disease. This disease was epidemic in the Dominican Republic at the time. The fear is not about if the United States can treat the missionaries, but if they accidentally bring any in their clothes without being aware of
Ebola: A possible travel ban on people coming to the United States from countries where the disease originated.