Sierra Leone
Ebola
Ebola virus, a terrible disease that threatened everyone
The whole world was shocked on how viral and deadly the Ebola virus has become, at the present moment, according to the latest report of World Health Organization or WHO, this virus already killed 961 people and 818 remained hospitalized for close monitoring and isolation. The number of reported cases continues and would continue to rise since there is no specific cure yet with regard to this virus.
This virus is known in these places since 1976 but this year is the most severe. The first case was reported December of 2013 and it originally started from Guinea. However, the virus has been confirmed only this March of 2014 and from Guinea, the virus started to spread to Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone that is why more and more people has been affected with this outbreak.
Because of the number of casualties, number of people affected, and the public health risk, World Health organization stated this virus as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern at exactly August 08, 2014. This was done to raise people’s awareness with regard to Ebola virus and how people should do additional safety measures to prevent the spread of it.
Some of the known signs and symptoms of Ebola virus are:
- Diarrhea
- Vomiting
- Body or Muscle fatigue
- Hemorrhagic Bleeding
Medical experts do not have the exact cure yet but there was a report that they already tried a medicine in an American patient and his condition started to stabilize but the patients is still under close monitoring. Medical professionals do not want to try it to other patients yet because the result has not been totally proven and they have tried it only with live monkeys. Although medical experts are trying their best to cure their patients, as of today, there is no specific cure yet for this virus.
Ebola virus did not exempt medical professionals, because some of the health workers including nurses and doctors are now confined in different hospitals and some of them already died including Sheik Umar Khan, a doctor from Sierra Leone. Researchers and all other medical professionals who deal with this virus are now observing extra safety precautions in order to avoid being infected.
Several health organizations including ECOWAS or Economic Community of West African State, European Commission, CDC or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and many other organizations already donated huge amount of funds to help in the procurement of health professionals and the equipments that is necessary in preventing the spread of the virus.
The World Health organization, government, and other organizations that is associated with this issue is absolutely trying their best in researching the best cure for this virus and to avoid it from spreading but this do not hinder the people in perturbing about their health and safety, because even if this virus is already detected, the number of deaths and people that is affected by this outbreak continues to rise. Instances like this, awareness, knowledge and prevention is your most effective protection.
