Effects of EBOLA and How to Prevent It
By Samuel Cameron | Biokenetics Major
Ebola has caused an extreme amount of damage to the countries that have experienced it. Around 28,600 people were infected, and 11,300 people died in the 2014–2016 outbreak (Ebola 2018). It is causing people to suffer in a variety of ways. Whether to one person, a community or country, it has left a devastating impact everywhere it goes. Scientists are still looking into ways that this disease can be treated, and the long term effects it is having on individuals and communities. They have also been looking into the effects on the economies of the countries that have experienced Ebola, and how to better prevent Ebola outbreaks from happening again. Ebola is a terrible disease that affects people biologically and psychologically, as well as greatly affecting economies, due to the improper prevention methods.
Ebola is a viral infectious disease that is spread through several different ways, and causes many different symptoms which can eventually lead to death. Some carriers of the disease are bats, insects, rodents, and infected people by body fluids or contact of objects and surfaces that have been contaminated by body fluids. When infected, it is believed that the virus weakens the immune system with a protein it produces, allowing the virus to spread and reproduce more rapidly. Once infected it takes 2 to 21 days for a person to begin showing symptoms (Ebola 2018). They will most likely have a fever, headaches, and muscle aches in the beginning. Then the infected person will begin hemorrhaging and will develop blood clots. The blood clots form in many of the internal organs and cause capillaries to bleed. Then nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea follow, which may contain blood. Lastly they will experience spontaneous bleeding out of cuts, areas they had needles, and other openings. A patient’s death is normally caused by hemorrhaging, shock, or renal failure within 8 to 17 days of having symptoms. The death rate of Ebola is anywhere from 50–90 percent (Ebola 2018). Those infected in more developed countries such as the U.S. are more likely to survive, unlike those that were infected in developing countries.
If a person does survive Ebola, they have been known to suffer from many different side effects. U.S. health care workers who were affected with Ebola and survived have all shown post Ebola symptoms. It is unclear if this is due to damage inflicted while they were infected, or if it is due to a lingering presence of the virus. They are not infectious during this time, and will not risk spreading the disease. The survivors seem to suffer from aches, pain, vision problems which can lead to blindness, hearing problems, nerve tingling, and extreme fatigue. For example, one physician was experiencing eye pain and almost went blind until the virus was removed from his eye. The virus changed his eye colour from blue to green (Evans 2016). Out of the eight survivors surveyed, six were able to resume regular activity after being discharged for eight weeks and claimed that over time their symptoms got better. Yet only one said they fully recovered and no longer had any symptoms (Evans 2016). Although symptom resolution may be true for the physical side effects, there is a good chance it is not for the psychological part of a survivor.
Many of the survivors of Ebola have also suffered from various psychological effects that have the possibility of being very debilitating to them. The experience of being surrounded by people constantly dying in front of them, and sometimes knowing those people who died, was one of the hardest things they said they had to go through (Rabelo 2016). It was common for the dead body to remain in the ward for several hours before a hospital worker could remove them from the facility. The survivors would also have feelings of abandonment from their families (Rabelo 2016). Many of the families could not or would not visit due to either fear, having to stay home and take care of family, or not knowing whether their infected loved one was alive or dead. From being separated from their family, the infected person also did not know whether their family was ok or not and that caused much fear and worry. Many of the survivors also suffered from depression and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They started to question if there was a reason to be alive and had trouble functioning as they did before. They would also experience flashbacks that varied from person to person. The main flashback that survivors had was of dead bodies that they saw during their time in quarantine (Rabelo 2016).
When the survivors were released from quarantine many were not welcomed back into their communities and were shunned. The people in their communities believed that they were still infectious and did not want to have any contact with them. Some were forced out of their houses, to get divorced, and to lose their jobs due to people not wanting to handle things they touched, or not wanting to be around them (Rabelo 2016). This was extremely hard on these individuals and is part of the reason they struggle with depression. No one wanted these Ebola survivors and they had no place, no support, and no way to earn a living. This has had an impact on the economies of the countries affected by Ebola.
The impact that Ebola created on the countries’ economies was significant. Scientists have examined how the 2014 Ebola outbreak affected these countries’ economy and why. The biggest thing that impacted the countries’ economies is not something normally seen. It was found that fear caused some of the greatest economical effects to those that experienced an Ebola outbreak. This was because not much was known about the disease and survival rates were slim, so people did something called “aversion behavior”. They isolated themselves for fear of getting infected which caused trade to drop, people to quit jobs, and flights to be cancelled. Consequently less money was going into these countries’ economies (Bank, The World 2014).
Scientists also found that the death toll had a devastating effect on families and communities. Some families lost the the sole or primary wage earner of the family, leaving them unable afford food and supplies for their families (Bank, The World 2014). Not only did this cause the family to struggle but it meant that the county was losing money that could have been coming in. Some families had to remove their children from school so that they could start to work and help provide for the family needs. Ebola also caused food shortages by slowing down trade. All of these effects combined together are costing these countries in the high millions of dollars in the short run, and the potential of billions of dollars in the long run. It will take years for these countries to recover (Bank, The World 2014). Yet this could have been avoided if the the world prioritized preventing Ebola.
There are many ways to prevent Ebola and its spread. One way to help prevent the spread is with equipment the healthcare workers would wear while treating those infected. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that healthcare workers should have their eyes, nose, and mouth covered, so that nothing that could infect them, such as bodily fluids will come into contact with them. A respiratory mask as well as a face shield is recommended as an effective prevention tool. WHO also recommends that the healthcare workers wear gloves, and have gowns that cover their bodies so that no contaminated substances will come into contact with them (Mohammed 2015). There was also a study done to see what areas in a hospital the virus was found after a patient had left the facilities. It was found that the patient’s bed, blanket, clothing, room floor, waste buckets and other areas showed signs of having the virus (Poliquin 2016). When healthcare workers went through proper decontamination protocol the virus was safely removed from the setting. If healthcare workers do and are able to follow these decontamination protocols as well as proper protective equipment, then getting infected by a patient or something they have come into contact with should not be a problem (Poliquin 2016). Sadly, if a healthcare worker does get infected, it can be hard to have successful treatment.
Currently there is no cure for Ebola, but there are certain treatments and drugs which make it more likely for an individual who has Ebola to survive. Health care workers will watch their fluid and electrolyte balance, making sure it is in a good range. They will also administer blood and plasma to control bleeding. There is also a drug that when tested on monkeys protected over 60 percent of them when given 30 to 60 minutes after infection (Ebola 2018). This is good for people such as health care workers who would have gotten infected accidentally in a laboratory or hospital (Ebola 2018). There is another drug that has been seen to show some curative effects when used against Ebola. That drug is called Favipiravir, which is used in the treatment of influenza. This drug was used in the outbreak in 2014 as an emergency treatment, but it showed good results. Two nurses who were infected with Ebola took Favipiravir and with other medication seemed to fully recover (Zhang 2017). Another possible route scientists are looking into are vaccines for Ebola. One study conducted in Guinea had found that around 84 percent of people they had talked to would accept a safe and effective vaccine (Irwin 2017). This would be a huge step in fighting against Ebola and hopefully one day eradicate it. If scientists are able to develop a safe vaccine for people to take, there would be a large group of people who would take it causing a decrease in Ebola and preventing the spread of the disease.
It may seem like since there is no cure or vaccine for Ebola, that no matter what scientists and countries would do to try and prevent the disease, the same outcomes would have happened. Ebola is such a contagious disease it would have continued to wreak havoc no matter what they tried to do. But if countries were to have tried implementing certain tactics, the number of cases would have went down due to people having better knowledge of Ebola, and people attempting to prevent the spread before they got infected.
“WHO believes that 60 percent of all Ebola cases in Guinea were due to traditional burial practices (Manguvo 2015).”
The impact Ebola has had on the world could have been lessened if people were better prepared. One issue that caused problems with prevention of the disease was religious and traditional beliefs and practices. WHO believes that 60 percent of all Ebola cases in Guinea were due to traditional burial practices (Manguvo 2015). As well as many Africans that were affected believing that diseases are caused by God and a form of punishment. They also sought after traditional and spiritual healing over modern medicine. People who were trying to prevent the spread did not take this into consideration and it made it hard to try and get people to listen to them (Manguvo 2015). If they had thought about this barrier, they may have been able to find a way to work with the people, and still do what they need to do to better prevent the spread. Another issue that caused the Ebola virus to be so deadly was how the countries tried to stop the spread. They all took a top down approach. That means that they waited for a person to get infected, then they would try and treat the infected person (Obilade 2015). This is a basic approach that has been used many times before and been shown to work with other diseases, so it was a logical step to take. But it has been found that this had not been able to reduce the number of infected people, and the numbers were still growing even with their efforts (Obilade 2015). What one study has proposed would be to take a bottom up approach; that is, where more of the responsibility on preventing the spread of Ebola is in the hands of individuals and communities. Instead of waiting for someone to get infected people can be taught the importance of better hygiene practices, such as frequent house cleaning and clothes washing, which has been known to reduce the chances of getting infected. The communities can teach their children ways that the virus is spread and how to avoid getting it. Schools should try and remain open to be that source of knowledge (Obilade 2015). By taking both a bottom up and top down approach, and educating their people, countries could have a better chance with preventing viruses like Ebola from having this bad of an impact.
Ebola has been devastating the world for a long time and caused a variety of problems. Those problems could be biological and causing people to suffer many painful symptoms, or psychological and how it causes people to suffer through a variety of mental issues. The other devastating effect is on countries’ economies. It has done, and may still do, an immense amount of damage that will take years to recover from, which many people who were affected by this disease may never be able to do. The only way that this can be stopped is if there is more research done and countries help support each other through these ordeals. People need to step up and take preventative action into their own hands to help stop the spread of Ebola, and stopping this from ever happening again. It may be a difficult path but it seems to be the best course of action that can do much good.
Works Cited:
“Ebola.” Britannica Online Academic Edition, 2018, pp. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Evans, Gary. “Ebola Aftershock: HCWs Suffer Lingering Symptoms.” Hospital Employee Health, vol. 35, no. 2, 2016, pp. Hospital Employee Health, Feb 2016, Vol.35(2).
Irwin, Kathleen L., et al. “Attitudes about Vaccines to Prevent Ebola Virus Disease in Guinea at the End of a Large Ebola Epidemic: Results of a National Household Survey.” Vaccine, 2017, p. Vaccine.
Manguvo, Angellar, and Benford Mafuvadze. “The Impact of Traditional and Religious Practices on the Spread of Ebola in West Africa: Time for a Strategic Shift.” The Pan African Medical Journal, 22 Suppl 1, no. Suppl 1, 2015, p. 9.
Mohammed, Hanan Mohammed. “Ebola Virus Disease: Effects of Respiratory Protection on Healthcare Workers.” Egyptian Journal of Chest Diseases and Tuberculosis, vol. 64, no. 3, 2015, pp. 639–644.
Obilade, Titilola. “The Political Economy of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD); Taking Individual and Community Ownership in the Prevention and Control of EVD.” Healthcare, vol. 3, no. 1, 2015, pp. 36–49.
Poliquin, Philippe Guillaume, et al. “Environmental Contamination and Persistence of Ebola Virus RNA in an Ebola Treatment Center.” The Journal of Infectious Diseases, vol.214, no. suppl 3, 2016, pp. S145–S152.
Rabelo, Ionara, et al. “Psychological Distress among Ebola Survivors Discharged from an Ebola Treatment Unit in Monrovia, Liberia — A Qualitative Study.” Frontiers in Public Health, vol. 4, 2016, p. 142.
Bank, The World., and Evans, David. The Economic Impact of the 2014 Ebola Epidemic: Short- and Medium-Term Estimates for West Africa. World Bank Group, 2014.
Zhang, Tao, et al. “Recent Progress on the Treatment of Ebola Virus Disease with Favipiravir and Other Related Strategies.” Bioorganic &Amp; Medicinal Chemistry Letters, vol. 27, no. 11, 2017, p. 2364.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Samuel Cameron, freshman biokinetics major from Bethel University Minnesota, hopes to be a Physician’s Assistant. Samuel enjoys learning about anatomy, going on hikes with his family and friends, and lacrosse.
