The Main Problems and Suggestions Regarding The Spread of The Ebola Disease in Africa

Abstract

This document provides an in-depth summary of infection prevention and measures for people giving direct and non-direct care to people suspected or confirmed to have the Ebola virus disease. Research reveals that there is a positive relationship between fatality of human virulence and death reported, but there exist a negative relationship between cases of reported human virulence and the death of reported human virulence. The African government should look critically on the structures of this health hazard caused by the deadly virus outbreak Ebola.

Introduction

Ebola virus disease brings a more frightening of infectious disease syndrome to the peoples mind. The stories written on this deadly disease, to some appears like a horror books. Imagine victims bleeding from their eyes, ears and the nose. Ebola is a severe disease caused by Ebola virus. It is highly infectious, fatal with death rate above 90%, though the death rate can be prevented. The disease is caused by members of a family filoviruses commonly known as ebolavirus. The first outbreak was first reported in the far west in Africa. The outbreak of Ebola disease in West Africa was declared an international public health emergency. The disease caused a wider problem such as closure of schools, food shortages, and economic downturn. It was evident at that time that there lacked an empirical research investigation process on the Ebola outbreak. The countries affected in the West Africa, lack the capacity to manage an outbreak of large size and the complexity on the disease. The international community provided the support on the most urgent basis. On mid-august 2014, a quarantine centre in West point, Monrovia was attacked by protesters who termed the epidemic as a mare hoax. Discourse community in the western community has been useful in suggesting the best mutual distribution of providing the probable solution to the Ebola spread.

Aim and objectives

The aim of the research is to provide empirical evidence on the trends and structure of Ebola outbreak, its impact on the teenagers education, health related issues and the economic recovery in the Sierra Leone. Specifically, the following objectives are pursued.

i) To undertake Ebola outbreak appraisal in Africa and other countries in the world, and their trends and structural growth in sierra Leone, west Africa and African countries;

ii) To examine the determinants of Ebola outbreak within the population context of Sierra Leone.

iii) To assess the in-depth impact of Ebola outbreak and its effect on the teenagers in Sierra Leone.

Research questions

The following research questions are the relevant to the issues being investigated in the study:

i) Do Ebola outbreak appraisal in Africa and other countries in the World have any trends and structural growth in Sierra Leone, West Africa and the African countries?

ii) Does the determinant of Ebola outbreak have any important impact on the population of Africa?

iii) Do the in-depth assessment of Ebola outbreak and its adverse effect has any Important effect on the population of Africa?

Hypothesis

The following hypotheses are tested in line with the above stated objectives:

i) Ebola outbreak has no transitional trends and structural growth in Africa and other countries in the world, also, in Sierra Leon and West African countries

ii) Ebola outbreak has no impact on the population of Africa in both the long-run and short-run.

iii) The widespread of Ebola outbreak and its adverse effect has no impact on the population of Africa.

Literature review

This chapter will cover the conceptual framework of Ebola virus outbreak a view to elaborate the various stakeholders who embark on the fight against this severe outbreak. It involves the general overview of various researchers of Ebola virus and its impact on the communities at large.

Conceptual framework of Ebola outbreak

Ebola epidemics were first recorded in the Democratic of the Congo and Sudan on the late 1970s. The investigation carried at that time did not discover the virus in insects or mammals. An outbreak due to a new subtype of the virus occurred in a colony of non-keys quarantine facilities. Many teenagers have been affected on the recent epidemic in the Sierra Leone and West Africa (Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak and the Mineral Sectors of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone ). Girls have been impregnated by the community .there has been a lot of hardship in acquiring the basics and this lead to the closure of many schools. The government and non -governmental organisations have been working together so as to empower women and girls in the community.

Signs and symptoms of Ebola

The signs and symptoms of Ebola usually starts suddenly with influenza like stage mostly characterised by fatigue, fever, joint and muscle pain, vomiting, and loss of appetite are common early symptoms (Evans, 54). The average time between contracting and the start of the symptoms is average of eight days. The symptoms exposed via skin are rashes. Earlier the Ebola symptoms related to that of malaria or tropical fevers, before the disease progressed to bleeding phase (Smith, 60). Bleeding raptures tissues in the body of a patient such as the mucus membrane. The bleeding phase which usually start at day five after the first symptoms, internal bleeding may present itself through bloody vomit and reddening of the eyes (Evans,40 ). Heavy bleeding is rare which is often confined to the gastrointestinal tract (Draper, 37). Development of bleeding symptoms often shows a worse progress that may result to death due to excessive loss of blood. People have shown symptoms such as impaired blood clotting (Drape, 78). When an infected person does not recover, death due to multiple organ dysfunctions occurs with 8 to 15 days after the first symptoms.

Causes and transmission

Ebola virus disease is caused by four viruses classified in the genus Ebolavirus, family Filoviridae. The four disease-causing viruses are known as Tai forest virus, Sudan virus and one called simply Ebola virus (Brantly, Griffith, Zimmerman, Brantly, and Thomas,106 ). Ebola virus is a sole member of the Zaire ebolavirus species, which is the most dangerous disease-causing viruses and it resulted in the largest number of outbreaks. There is a fifth virus namely reston virus, that is not thought to be a disease causing in humans. Human to human transmission can occur through direct contact with the blood or body fluids from an affected person, or by contact with contaminated medical equipment such as needles and syringes. The possibility of widespread Ebola virus disease infections is considered small as the disease is only spread by direct contact with the excretions from an individual who is showing signs of the infection. Dead bodies are still infectious and the traditional burial rituals may spread the disease. Semen also is infectious in survivors for up to 45 days. Medical workers have to wear protective clothing so as not to contact the disease. There has no any documentation of the airborne transmission, but they however, infectious as breathable 0.8-0.13 –um laboratory generated droplets.

Diagnosis

The person’s medical history mostly travels and work and also including the exposure to wildlife are very important in suspecting the diagnosis of Ebola virus. The best way of confirming this diagnosis is by isolating the virus, detecting its protein or it can also be through detecting antibodies against the virus in the person’s blood. The virus is isolated through cell culture, its viral RNA by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and detecting its proteins through enzyme-linked immunosorbet assay (ELISA). This is particularly effective in early and in those who have succumb from the disease (Smith, 69). It is effective to detect antibodies against the virus late in and in those who are recovering from the disease. In the event of an outbreak of the virus its isolation is often not feasible. The major diagnostic methods therefore are real time PCR and ELISA detection of the cells proteins. Both this two main methods can be performed in the field or mobile hospitals across the area of outbreak.

The symptoms of the disease are similar to those of Mardbug virus disease. The sparkling similarity can easily be confused with many other common diseases in Equatorial Africa (Evans, 86). This diseases include; falciparum malaria, typhoid fever, cholera, and haemorrhagic fevers. Some communities in Sierra Leon decided to settle on traditional medicine as they explained that through the use of traditional healers. Their healers prepared the medicine and administer and out of fear of Ebola they continue to rely on this form of medication. They were using the traditional medicine despite the warning and its because they had no other alternative.

Epidemiology

The outbreak slowly began building up in Sierra Leon. On June 23, the first case was reported in Freetown the capital and the cases started increasing rapidly in the remaining months of the year. By October 15, the only remaining district untouched by the virus had started receiving cases of Ebola and November had rapid increase of new cases. This outbreak in Sierra Leon spiked and dipped the spread later in Liberia. The funeral of traditional healer in may in a village in remote area was responsible for the 365 deaths. A state of emergency was declared in the local state by the authorities in the affected district of Kailahun that led to closure of business and schools. This was followed by state of emergency for Nationwide which was on August 6, 2014. This approach did not did much to reduce the spread of the virus in the Sierra Leon’s population o f6.2 million (Smith). By the end of the year 2014, the ministry of health in the country was reporting 2,435 deaths confirmed out of the 7,458 cases already confirmed with Ebola. The number of deaths cases confirmed had risen to 3,341 by February 15, 2015 as reported by WHO report.

Theoretical framework and methodology

It was possible to establish the relationship between the Ebola virus and its outbreak in the various regions using the direct approach. It is important to note there is an impact between the Ebola outbreak and mortality of human being based on education and health. It is important also to introduce an economic growth model which captures the changing behaviour of Ebola virus and the level mortality rate in humans and also other variables. It thus lead us to introduction of convectional growth theory model by Robert Solow (1956). He find out that economic growth attained through accumulation of expansion of labour force and physical capital in conjunction with factor of technology makes labour and capital productive. This leads us to Cobb-Douglas production function which is the augmented Solow model. This model is important because it gives the appropriate formulation of evaluating contribution of capital by humans to economic growth. This model can as well be used to establish the relationship between the outbreak of Ebola virus and the mortality of human beings in advanced level. The functions or variables in the model are formulated to fit into the case of Ebola virus and as a result key elements have to be formulated .The major concern is to establish the model also in economic concern view of the Ebola outbreak.

Summary, conclusion and policy recommendation

Summary and conclusion

This research has evaluated the relationship between the Ebola outbreak and the impact on population of Sierra Leon and other western Africa including Liberia and Guinea in the year 2014 and 2015 (Brantly, Griffith, Zimmerman, Brantly, and Thomas , 128). It was also important in examining the effect of outbreak on families and children on the basis of food, education, child protection, livelihoods and health. Further to this examinations, the study also touched on themes such as gender, youth, rural/urban differences and most of all cohesion in community. The findings provided a clear picture of the nature in which children’s lives were influenced and affected .The findings also though based on very local view has brought light to issues which need to be address in the wake of recovery and response phase of Ebola emergency. The conclusions are important in addressing the immediate issues and needs and also for future long-term matters that may arise and its consequences. The entire population of the country was affected by the consequences of the Ebola outbreak and the findings would not only be used for current response and recovery but also for future medical emergencies and other disasters. The findings also realized the ability of communities to respond and control the Ebola outbreak (Draper,130).The communities were able to contain the virus before even the state was slow to respond to their emergency.

Policy recommendation

From the findings above, the whole research explained the key issues and therefore recommends a policy for consideration. It is important for the government to adopt modern technologies in security and infrastructure in health sector. It should establish Ebola health centres for treatment of affected victims and manufacturing of vaccines. This will go far in combating the Ebola outbreak and its challenges which range from human virulence to human deaths (Evans , 135). The government should isolate those confirmed and suspected with Ebola virus in isolation rooms. The rooms should have all the basic necessities like latrines, showers, running water and single use towels. It is important to ensure that all other non-clinical and clinical staff are assigned to patients in isolation rooms and that members of staff should not move freely in the room in isolation room and other clinical areas during the period of outbreak. There should be restriction of all non-essential staff in the isolation areas and there is need also to stop visitors from access to patient and also care facility if not this is not possible, limit the number to only include those necessary or patient well- being for example the child’s parent. It is advisable never to allow visitor to never enter the isolation rooms but allow them to observe their patients from a distance. They should also be screened for the virus before they enter the care centres.