HOW SHOULD AFRICAN COUNTRIES RESPOND TO EBOLA CRISIS?

Thesis
Ebola virus disease which is also called Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever is a
virus that belongs to the Filoviridae family and causes fever in humans and
primates. Government of African countries should take some measure to
ensure the following: the masses are being educated about the epidemic,
restrict movement from infected countries to Ebola free countries, infected
countries should take maximum security measures on information to be
published in journals and reports, the government should provide fund,
facilities and materials for treatment and research centers for research
works. The government should check epidemic related disease in the past
such as Yellow Fever; how it escalated, what to learn from the epidemic, and
how it can be useful to tackle Ebola virus.
Ebloa was firstly
The re-emergence of Ebola in 2013 leading to an
epidemic which is still going strong in 2014, is a typically
unpredictable event, in keeping with the chequered
history of this viral illness. Named after the Ebola river
valley where the first reported outbreak occurred, the virus
has shown endemic activity with intermittent outbreaks
since 1976. The virus was relatively quiescent in the 1980s
and returned with a vengeance in the mid-1990s. The story
of the current outbreak began in Gueckedouin (Guinea)
where, on 6 December 2013, a 2-year-old boy was affected.
Nobody would have imagined that this index case would be
the start of the largest outbreak of Ebola, resulting (till the
present date) in over 2,500 clinical cases and more than
1,300 deaths.
What differentiates this outbreak from the previous
ones is not just its magnitude (past outbreaks resulted
in a maximum of a few hundred cases), but its first ever
appearance in west African countries (Guinea, Liberia,
Sierra Leone and Nigeria). The Guinea strain is a
variant of the Zaire Ebola virus (ZEV), but haemorrhagic
manifestations are not as apparent this time around,
leading to the use of the term Ebola virus disease (EVD)
instead of Ebola haemorrhagic fev

The Ebola virus was first identified in a western equatorial province of

Sudan and in the nearby region of Zaire now the Democratic Republic of the
Congo. Between June and November 1976, 284 people were infected with
Ebola virus in Sudan, 318 in republic of Congo and after two years in Sudan,
33 causing a total death of 453. In 1989 to 1996, The Ebola Reston from
monkeys imported from the Philippines to the USA and to Italy. In October
2000, Ebola was reported in Gulu district in northern Uganda. On December

2003, several Ebola outbreaks of the Zaire subtype were reported in Gabon
and the Republic of the Congo with a total of 302 cases and 254 deaths.
According to lssac Brooch and Maria Creatore et al major problems
prominently affecting African countries regarding eradication of Ebola virus
includes: lack of facilities, lack of well-trained qualified personnel to conduct
experiments

and

fund

necessary

for

the

experiments.

The

African

government in partnership with world health organization (WHO) should

deploy scientists from developed countries such as, Canada, Russia, and
United States of America, to join the African scientists to conduct
experiments on the Ebola epidemic. Also, funds should be solicited from
world health organization (WHO), to help combat the Ebola virus outbreak
and address the broader humanitarian and security implications of the crisis.
The government should provide a room where patients infected with the
Ebola virus will be quarantined, trained hospital personnel should also be
informed on how they can protect themselves from contacting the virus while
treating the infected. This article recommends that government should
provide necessary condition for eradication of Ebola is a good evidence for
my essay.
Frieden, Thomas R., Damon, Inger, Et al The England Journal of Medicine
New Challenges, new

Global Response and Responsibility 371 (2015):

1177-1180. Web. 11 February 2015

The government should educate the masses about Ebola outbreak.
Thomas Frieden and Inger Damon, Et al gave an overview that education is

one of the most powerful means to convey information. In the rural area,
people are faced with greater threat of Ebola virus than people living in the
urban area due to lack of knowledge about the epidemic. People living in the
rural area do not know what Ebola is, how it can be transmitted and
symptoms of the virus. As a result of this, high rate of Ebola patient come
from this area. Governments can initiate means of conveying information to
the masses through the use of media, set up committee of trained personnel
to move round the villages. They could also organize education summit to
inform the masses about the epidemic. In addition, the government should
distribute hand sanitizers to encourage the masses to wash their hands
before eating any kind of food. As a result, the government will be able to
reduce the growing rate of infected people in the country. Education is a
good means to convey information to the masses as evident in my essay.
Lemontagne, Francois., Clement, Christopher Et al Doing todays work
superbly well-Treating Ebola with current tool. The

New England

Journal of Medicine, 371 (2014): 1565-1566. Web. 11 February 2015.

Francois

lemontagne

and

Christopher,

Et

al

recommends

that

the

government should ensure that movement is restricted from infected

countries to non-infected countries. The most trending means of transmitting
contagious disease is by movement from one place to the other. Due to the
fact that Ebola is highly contagious, drastic measures should be taken by the
government on the restriction of people travelling from infected countries
such as Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone to Ebola free countries. Information

should be passed down to the neighbouring countries to restrict people from

coming into their country as well. Therefore to ensure this, government
should stop all air flights travelling to and from infected countries and strict
security should be held at the bounders of their countries to restrict the
movement. People might think that the government of different countries are
restricting them on their right of movement to neighbouring country with
Ebola virus, but in the right sense of mind, the government is trying to
stabilize and reduce the epidemic outbreak by restraining the virus to a
particular area. Restricting movement from Ebola infected country to Ebola
free country is necessary and evident in my essay.
Regis, Ed. Virus Ground Zone. New work: Simon and Schuster Inc, 1996. Print
According to Ed Regis , as a result of the

epidemic outbreak in Africa,

journalist and reporter from different parts of the world have been on the
quest of finding out the source of the recent outbreak in Africa and reporting
back to their stations. If the government allows journalists and reporters to
gain access to the rooms where the Ebola victims are being kept to take
pictures and interrogate them to make up a report, they will end up causing
more problem for the government. This means that when those pictures and
report are sent to the media, it will not only cause anxiety and fear to the
public, but also, journalist and reporters stand a high risk of getting infected
by the disease. At this stage, journalist and reporters should not be allowed
by the government to come close to room where the Ebola patients are kept.

Journalists and reporters should be restricted from facilities where infected

patient are kept, is necessary and evident in my essay.
Walker, David H, James, Thomas N. Global infection Disease. New York :
Springer Verlag, 1992. Print.
David H Walker gave an overview that the government should research
related epidemic disease that occurred in the past, such as yellow fever,
determine how it escalated, mode of transmission of the epidemics, and how
useful the research can be in curing Ebola outbreak. Yellow fever was first
reported in the 1970, in South America, were 100 to 300 cases was
identified. In the year 1986, it was discovered in Africa, precisely in Nigeria, it
was reported that within a short period of time, Nigeria recorded 1000 to
3000 cases of yellow fever. This was as a result of the country not identifying
the disease and not taking proper measure to cure the disease. 32,728
deaths were recorded in Nigeria as a result of yellow fever. The rural area
recorded 80% of this death. People living in this area prefer to be treated by
the traditional herbalist than the western health professionals, as result of
this, people living in this area are more threatened by the epidemic.
Therefore, government should take report of the disease and proper measure
so that the Ebola virus does not spread. This page discuses that the
government should research related epidemic disease in the past is
necessary and evident in my essay.