Karissa'a African Blog: Ebola...Death strikes many!

Ebola

Going into a healthcare field, I find different viruses that are or have attacked different areas of the world interesting. I once heard of a virus called Black Death in one of my health classes, but I was not able to learn much about it except that it originated from Africa. Therefore, I thought it would be interesting to investigate this Black Death further. When I was researching, I stumbled upon this site with an immense amount of information.

The site gave good information on the overall background of the virus and gave the possible causes and symptoms of the Black Death. After reviewing the site I found out that the real name for Black Death is Ebola, and it is a virus that you would never wish upon anyone. The mortality rate of those affected by Ebola is 88 percent, which is one of the most fatal viruses on the Earth!

Africa is the only place where Ebola has been spotted, and that is how everyone should want to keep it. The virus can spread rapidly and is commonly spread by person- to- person contact. I think it has appeared only in Africa because of the current and past living conditions. Africa is a continent where supplies are harsh, health is declining, and resources are just not as readily available. I think with the installment of universal precautions in their healthcare settings would be very beneficial, but it is obviously unrealistic.

There were many key points in the article that I found to be interesting. For example, the site pointed out that it usually attacks and takes over the body in a time frame of 7 to 14 days, and it damages several different tissues while the person affected is still alive. It is a stage 4 pathogen, which apparently ranks higher than AIDS, and there is no known cure and no vaccination to prevent Ebola from attacking. The most recent cases of Ebola have been spotted in Congo, and while the virus can be isolated it apparently cannot be stopped, because the reservoir is still unknown!

Here is a map of Africa with the latest cases of Ebola in 2007 in Congo.