Ebola is a member of the virus family Filoviridae, causes hemorrhagic fever, which is serious illness in humans and animals. Ebola virus disease is extremely contagious, with mortality rate is 92%. It is transmitted to human from wild animals (chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys) or from human through liquid body substance like blood, slaver, urine, etc. of a person who is infected with Ebola, except water and air. Ebola virus is found in various countries in Africa. It was first discovered in 1976, during an outbreak in Zaire and Sudan. Since then, Ebola has been started outbreak in Central Africa. The current outbreaks of Ebola are appearing in West Africa, and two imported Ebola virus diseases (EVD) cases in the United States. This is the largest …show more content…
From 1977 to 2013, there were less than 500 cases infected with Ebola and fewer than 300 deaths per year. As of August 2007, 413 people were infected with Ebola by a hemorrhagic fever outbreak in Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo. It started with the village chief‘s funeral who died from unidentified causes, after that the villagers became ill and then EBOV spread out. The 2014 Ebola outbreak is the largest in history. EBOV cases are speeding up over time and spread out all over the world. To date, there are 4,808 deaths out of 13,015 cases infected with Ebola and the mortality rate is 90%. Researchers believe the Ebola outbreak was first started with a 2 year old boy in Meliandou, Guinea in December 2013. His family hunts bats for meat, yet African bats are carring Ebola virus which directly caused infection. His sister, mother, and grandmother died in a few weeks later, after his death with similar symptoms. People in the village came to the funeral and got infected, then spread the virus to other villages. It became a plurality of public health issue; however, they mistook the hemorrhagic fever of Ebola with Lassa fever or other disease. In March 2014, the Ebola virus disease spread throughout four countries in West Africa: Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria. This is the first time an Ebola outbreak occurs in these regions. On 28 May, Guinea's Ministry of Health (GMH) reported that 281 …show more content…
From August 2014 to September 2014, there are two EBOV cases in Spain. Unfortunately, two people who volunteered in Liberia and in Sierra Leone died after they were airlifted to their country. People who infected with EBOV while volunteering in West Africa are immediately airlifted to their countries for treatment, including: United States, United Kingdom, Norway, Germany, and France. According to the WHO, people had been recovered and no death case. However, there is an imported case in the United States (US). A businessman’s name Eric Duncan traveled from Liberia to US with Ebola virus disease. He was sent to a Dallas hospital in Texas and isolated since he has a positive test for Ebola. He succumbed to EBOV and his death was announced on September 28. Vinson and Nina Pham are two nurses at Dallas hospital who treated patient Eric Duncan were tested positive for the disease. Both were sent to Maryland for their treatment and released on October 24 and 30. Till today, no further EBOV case in US according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevent
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.
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.
In Richard Preston’s “The Hot Zone” there is the overarching theme which is that nature is a power that dwarfs the achievements and power that humans possess. This lends to the consideration that humans should strive to understand the viruses and diseases that nature “throws” at the human race. Preston uses gruesome imagery, and characterization to persuade the reader to take the direction of overcoming the viruses and horrors of nature through research to better society.
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.
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.
Ebola, a virus which acquires its name from the Ebola River (located in Zaire, Africa), first emerged in September 1976, when it erupted simultaneously in 55 villages near the headwaters of the river. It seemed to come out of nowhere, and resulted in the deaths of nine out of every ten victims. Although it originated over 20 years ago, it still remains as a fear among African citizens, where the virus has reappeared occasionally in parts of the continent. In fact, and outbreak of the Ebola virus has been reported in Kampala, Uganda just recently, and is still a problem to this very day. Ebola causes severe viral hemorrhagic fevers in humans and monkeys, and has a 90 % fatality rate. Though there is no cure for the disease, researchers have found limited medical possibilities to help prevent one from catching this horrible virus.
I was pleasantly surprised by the end of the book. It didn't have the twists and turns the beginning of the book had, but it was actually interesting. It was interesting to see how the Kitum cave and areas near that were explored.
In the Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus by Richard Preston, published in 1995, is a novel about the origins and the development of viral hemorrhagic fevers, especially ebola and marburg. These diseases are all Biosafety Level 4 agents, which means that they are extremely dangerous because they are highly infectious, have a high case-fatality rate, and there are no known treatments or cures. Marburg Virus and Ebola virus are filoviruses belong to a virus family called Filoviridae and they can cause severe hemorrhagic fever in humans and nonhuman primates. Five species of Ebola Virus have been identified: Taï Forest, Sudan, Zaire, Reston and Bundibugyo. The book describes the history of these diseases by explaining
Ebola virus disease is the kind of thing that horror writers dream about, it brings the most frightening of infectious disease symptoms to mind. Just imagine victims bleeding from their eyes, ears and nose. The nonfiction book The Hot Zone by Richard Preston and the 1995 movie Outbreak, are excellent examples of our perception of the disease. Ebola is highly infectious, rapidly fatal, deadly disease with a death rate of up to 90%, after the onset of symptoms. It is transmitted through direct contact with an infected person or primates bodily fluids like blood, saliva, urine, sperm, etc. or by contact with contaminated surfaces or equipment, including linen soiled by the infected person's body fluids. The disease is caused by members of a family
Ebola can be spread in a number of ways. Ebola reproduction in infected cells takes about eight hours. Hundreds to thousands of new virus cells are then released during periods of a few hours to a few days. In most outbreaks, transmission from patient to patient within hospitals has been associated within the reuse of needles and syringes. High rates of transmission in outbreaks have occurred from patients to family members who provide nursing care without barriers to prevent exposure to blood, other body fluids such as, vomit, urine and feces. Risk for transmitting the infection appears to be highest during the later stages of illness. Those symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, shock, and frequently hemorrhaging. Even a person who has recovered from the symptoms of the illness may have the virus present in the genital secretions for a short time after. This makes it possible for the virus to be spread by sexual activity. Complete recovery is reached only when none virus’s cells are left in any body fluids. This is quite rare.
The Ebola-Zaire branch was the first to be recognized and has the highest death rate of 89 percent. The Ebola-Sudan subtype has a death rate of 53 percent, and the Ebola Haemorrhagic Fever virus as a whole having a 68 percent death rate. Since the Ebola virus has not been recognized for a long time, it cannot be said for sure how it is transmitted though it is believed to be zoonotic, meaning that it is transmitted by animals and from contact with the virus, making it spread quickly through family and friends. It also transmits itself nosocomially, where it can transmit quickly through a health care environment, like a hospital. This is especially dangerous in places like Africa,...
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.
In the following diary, Dr. Paul Framer reflected on his trip to Liberia and documented his experience and opinions of the tragic impact of the Ebola outbreak. Challenging the perceived notions of Ebola epidemiology, he analyzed possible causes of the viral transmission within West Africa. Despite its high fatality rates, Dr. Framer characterized the Ebola virus not as a death sentence, but a health crisis that simply requires a strong and efficient health care system. He examined the virus to be fueled by social and economic challenges. cultural practices, inadequate medical staff, lack of resources and health equipment(s).