Ebola Virus in West Africa

By Maria Fernanda Pereira Ywazaki on August 20, 2014

In March, the Ebola virus spread and became an epidemic for the west African countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, and Nigeria.  The Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) is severe and fatal in 90% of the cases.  Outbreaks have proven to be devastating for families and even communities; however, with the required precautions, infection is controllable.  EVD symptoms are very similar to that of the flu in the beginning, but soon after they develop into diarrhea, bleeding, vomiting, and impaired kidney and liver function. Fortunately, it is not an airborne disease and transmission happens when a person is in contact with infected bodily fluids (e.g. blood, saliva).

As of August 11th, the number of official cases for the virus is near to 2000, and the number of deaths is a little over 1000.  The situation has lead the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare International Public Health Emergency.  Nevertheless, with the recently declared statement, no restriction in flights have been deemed necessary unless the person flying has been diagnosed.  This aspect is slightly comforting in the aspect that it means there are is no sufficient worry of the situation turning into a pandemic.  Even so, the WHO considers the situation as quite severe.  In a meeting held on August 11, among WHO, scientific experts and medical ethicists, it was declared that given the circumstances the use of unregistered treatments may be used.  This means treatments that have yet to be experimented for efficacy or side-effects.  Of course, an ethical criteria would guide the interventions. It is imperative that the physicians show transparency with the treatment, informed consent, free-will is respected, among others.

EVD is, quite frankly, an ugly disease that scientists have yet to find a cure.  Let us hope that the new measures the WHO has taken will help control the outbreak and prevent from more people getting infected, even to finally find a cure.

 

 

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