All you could read about in the news media less than a year ago was the Ebola outbreak. But now, similar to other stories of yesterday, such as bird flu and measles, it is now nowhere to be found — except in Africa. The disease continues to have a major impact on this population, leading to the potential for another epidemic. Ebola continues to plague this continent, creating the conditions of low life expectancy for the region.
Ebola,or haemorrhagic fever, is a virus that causes symptoms such as fever, vomiting and diarrhea. Signs of the illness start to appear 2 to 21 days after exposure to the disease has occurred. There are five strains of the Ebola virus, and death rates range from 25-90 percent. The disease is spread from animals to humans, and then from human to human contact.
Africa Continues to Struggle with the Disease
In Africa, Sierra Leone and Guinea are still having substantial problems with Ebola and have recently reported 14 and 10 cases, respectively. Community-wide quarantines and strict curfews are the approaches the local government is taking to try and curb the proliferation of the disease among the population. The main problem in eradicating the illness is it is often not diagnosed until after death.
Therefore, the primary reasons the rates of Ebola deaths are higher in Africa than in the United States or other developed countries are attributed to lack of access to diagnostic tools and medicines. In general, the U.S. and Africa have different life expectancies, but drugs used to treat Ebola are simply not commonplace in Africa. People in the United States take both medications and diagnostic equipment for granted, but these very devices are the reason Ebola death rates in America are so low.
Infrastructure and Preparedness Are Key
Multiple hospitals in the U.S. and elsewhere went to painstaking preparedness and infrastructure upgrade efforts to protect both patients and staff from the threat of Ebola. Drills were hosted, policies were revised, equipment was purchased, and plans were put in place to handle the potential influx of Ebola patients.
These adjustments created a viable framework for handling the disease. The same types of opportunities are not readily available in Africa, and as evidenced by the media’s short attention span, public support for has waned as well.
However, many healthcare workers did volunteer to help loosen the grip of the disease throughout the country. Non-governmental organizations such as the American Red Cross and Africare helped to lend their support to eliminating Ebola in Africa. In addition, the U. S. offered both monetary and military support during the most tenuous time of the crisis.
Making Some Progress
The cycle of illness and disease is an up and down battle. From flu epidemics to measles pandemics, some diseases are now controlled and others are eradicated. The key to managing these crises is proper infrastructure and planned preparedness.
Implementing these steps in Africa has posed a real challenge. As Ebola is better controlled through these initiatives, Africa will feel a reprieve from the disease.
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