The Emergence of the Ebola Epidemic - Assignment Example

October 26, The Emergence of the Ebola Epidemic Key Events The Ebola disease was first reported in 1976 along the Ebola River in the former Zaire currently the Democratic Republic of Congo. The first attack was not very intense though it led to the loss of about two hundred people. The disease’s mortality rate kept on increasing with subsequent attacks hitting eighty eight per cent in the outbreak that followed in Zaire. The disease was identified to have been caused by two different viruses the Yambuku and the EBOZ with the third one Ebola Reston being identified in the attacks of the people who never formed the hemorrhagic fever that is a fingerprint of Ebola. In 1994, a new strain of the virus was discovered in Cote d’Ivoire. According to Piot (2012), the EBO-CI infected humans when a female ethologist accidentally infected herself on an operation on a chimpanzee, p. 31. In the past few months, Ebola has again hit the headlines with the latest outbreak in West Africa with the worst hit countries being Liberia. This has been facilitated by the poor health infrastructure in the country which has made the country unable to handle the disease and it’s spreading as fast as it can be required. The virus is transmitted by coming into contact with any discharge from the infected person’s body and since it takes some time for the onset of the symptoms, many people have been spreading it without their knowledge. To be able to handle such a crisis there needs to be a strong and well equipped medical staff that is ready to handle any outbreak regardless of the magnitude. Due to the countries lack of funds, international doctors have been the only solace to the solace to the people coming to help in managing the disease as the cure is being prepared. Many developing countries have not embraced research a fact that has made them lag behind in matters that are serious to their people. In the developed countries, such an outbreak would be handled seriously and research would have followed to come up with possible solutions and possibly a cure to the disease. However, in the developing countries specifically in Africa the governments have not invested heavily in the health sector. This is depicted by the way they are unable to address disasters when they arise. For instance drifting from the Ebola case, AIDS has been the leading killer in many parts of the continent over the years with the efforts to control it being hard and the deaths continuing. The lack of a cure for the disease has catapulted the deaths it has caused. In the same case Ebola has no cure and though the doctors have been using the trial drugs it is still far from being controlled in an amicable manner. What is important at the moment is to control and prevent its spread as the doctors’ work on the already confirmed cases. Many countries have banned flights from the Ebola hit countries and also thorough screening is done on people coming from West Africa. This has negatively impacted on business in the region with the hit countries suffering the most. Key Long Term Issues The spread of the Ebola disease will have both short term and long term effects to the countries that are involved. The short term effects include drop in business as many countries have banned flights to the region. There is unrest in the country and in the meantime that may be followed by political unrest. It is common after a disaster hits a country a heated political scenario follows as the opposition tries to show that it’s the government of the day that has failed in delivering its mandate to the people of the country. In the most hit countries i.e. Liberia and Cote d’Ivoire there has been a time of political unrest in the past and this could elicit another case of heated political debates on the effects of the disease to the people. The Ebola epidemic will definitely have an impact on the hit countries’ international relations with other countries. At this time various bodies and countries have sent their set of doctors to go and manage the crisis and try to bring the disease to a manageable level (Piot, 2012). However as that is being done other countries are busy blocking the flights from the hit areas without offering any help to the hit regions. This may affect the way the countries relate with them after the disease is controlled. United States has been in the lead to try and calm the situation with its researchers working vehemently to develop a cure for the deadly disease. The dynamics of the disease makes it hard to treat and many people opt to stay out of it rather than risking their lives as they try to calm the situation. Many doctors and other medical staff have died in their line of duty as they interacted with the sick people and this has sent cold shivers among other medical personnel making them cow from their role of helping the sick. Another effect that need to be considered and that may cause short term and long term effects is the allocation of resources to handle the crisis. When the epidemic hit, it is evident that the government allocates much of its capital to handle the crisis. After that has been solved a big deficit is left and there is no money to be put in the right allocations. The effect is that important projects in the country will stall if the government is unable to get grants from international bodies like World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The United Nations has a kitty that help its members when they are hit by such disasters but that is rarely enough to handle the situation. The major stake holders in the situation include the government that is working to have the matter controlled and bring the cases down. Though this has been the aim it has been some months now and the funds are limited despite the efforts being invested by the medical personnel. One of the major challenges that has been encountered is limited staff to handle the cases. As it is the norm in such countries, the ratio of the qualified medical staff to the population is very high and considering that Ebola is a sensitive disease it proves very hard for the few ones handling it. The international community has also played a key part in this pandemic offering both physical and financial assistance to the affected countries. The doctors in the areas affected need to have specialized training and this has been offered by the international community to help the local ones. If not for this alliance between the local and the international community it would have been tougher to control the spread of the disease and also to manage the already proven cases. Tools and Actions Available The major concern as of today is to bring the disease to a more manageable level. This can only be done through the efforts put by the various stake holders which include the doctors, the national government, the international community, the researchers and the American Food and Drug Administration that is mandated with the task of approving the drugs that have been developed in the United States before they are allowed into the market. Over the years intensive efforts have been put to try and come up with a cure for the disease. The recent outbreak in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia has made the issue more serious as there needs to be a long term solution to the problem. The international laws that govern the use of various drugs have to apply when this is being done and so this has made the process increasingly slow. In the last few weeks it was alleged that in Nigeria an Ebola case had been successfully handled using the available drugs synthesized in their labs. The same has been happening in other parts as the doctors try to test some of the drugs whose lime light has been given by the Food and Drug governing bodies. The presence of counterfeit drugs in the market has facilitated the need to have the governing bodies working to ensure that the drugs that the people are using have been verified to be of the best quality. This is an involving process that requires collaboration between various countries as many drugs are sold as exports from the manufacturers. The sellers of the counterfeit ones take advantage of the business channels to introduce their own into the market thereby compromising the health of those who use them. The international community should be more vehement in pooling in resources to address the problem. Since this is an international disaster, imagining what would happen if the spread would continue to other parts of the world, then more resources and efforts need to be put to ensure that the disease is eradicated. This can be done by bringing in more doctors to the hit regions. These doctors should be armed with special knowledge and training to be able to supplement the experience from the ones on the ground. In many of the international airports, there are insufficient tools used to screen people for Ebola. These should be enhanced to avoid cases such as the one that led to the virus getting into Nigeria. This if implemented can help reduce the effect of the disease before embarking on the situation on the ground. Cited Work Piot, Peter. No Time to Lose: A Life in Pursuit of Deadly Viruses, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1st Ed. 2012, p. 31. Print. Read More