By Janeal Downs
Many concerns have risen with the recent reports of an American woman and man infected with Ebola being transported to the United States of America. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol were respectively brought to Atlanta, health ask Georgia after contracting Ebola while on a mission trip in Liberia.
What is Ebola?
On its website, pharmacy Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes Ebola as a disease which can be spread through direct contact with an infected person’s blood, bodily fluids, or objects that have been contaminated with the virus.
If a person comes into contact with the Ebola virus, symptoms of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever can include fever, headache, body aches, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pains, lack of appetite, and other symptoms similar to those of a cold. Because the symptoms can be associated with other illnesses, Ebola is difficult to diagnose.
Prevention and treatment
It is best for infected patients to be quarantined for treatment. To prevent the spread of the virus, items used to treat people with the virus, such as gloves and gowns, should be properly cleaned and disposed.
There is no known cure for the disease at the time, but treatment can include balancing fluids and electrolytes, maintaining oxygen status and blood pressure, and treating patients for infections.
Concerns
Chief medical officer at the University of Kansas Hospital, Dr. Lee Norman, spoke with Healthline to discuss the disease and what it could mean for other residents in America. “We know it’s not contagious from a respiratory standpoint,” Norman said. “If there’s a silver lining, it’s the fact that if you flew from Berlin to Boston, and sat next to a person incubating Ebola, you would not catch it, because it’s not spread through respiratory droplets or coughing like SARS or influenza.”
The same article said deputy director of the CDC’s National Center for Emerging Zoonotic and Infectious Diseases, Stephan Monroe, “stated that no Ebola cases have been reported in the United States, and that the likelihood of this outbreak spreading outside of West Africa is very low.”
