The Ebola Epidemic
The Ebola epidemic has become the deadliest epidemic to date. As of September 28th, there has been 7,191 cases of the virus in west Africa and 3,286 total deaths due to it. Unfortunately, this number will continue to grow if we are not careful. Ebola is a virus that causes bleeding inside and outside of the body. Some symptoms include sore throat, high fever, headache, joint muscles,weakness, stomach pain, and lack of appetite. Symptoms appear 2 to 21 days after one is infected, which is an enormous issue and could cause severe complications. Often, an individual could have the virus unknowingly. One can catch the virus by coming into contact with body fluids or skin of an infected animal. The virus travels from person to person in the the same way. On September 30th, NBC cameraman Ashoka Mukpo was diagnosed with the virus in Dallas. He was coming home from Africa to visit family and began experiencing symptoms of the virus, culminating in his current quarantine in a hospital.
Procedures to hopefully reduce the disease’s severity are underway. Several trained specialists are trying to get in touch with everyone that came in contact with the infected person. On October 1st, another unidentified person began to be monitored for potentially having Ebola, due to close contact with already infected individuals. The person came into contact with 4 children while he had Ebola, as well. These children are not going to school based on the high possibility that they are now carriers of the virus. Airline crew members are now trained to recognize the symptoms in passengers arriving from places where the virus originated, such as Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. The U.S. government has contributed $30,000,000 to help stop the virus from spreading. The virus is not highly contagious, but it is highly infectious. Luckily for us, there is no enormous risk of the virus propagating in the United States. However, that doesn’t mean that we should not be concerned. Everyone should still try to stay as healthy as possible and take precautionary measures whenever possible.
