Human Diseases of Ebola Essay

Ebola virus has been in existence for a long while, and many people have lost their lives to it when looking at the West African countries. The Ebola that was seen in the West African countries was the most common as it led to significant losses in life especially in countries such as Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia (Center for Disease Control, 2014). The first significant case of the disease was reported in Guinea in the year 2013, and it spread to the neighboring countries, and from then the mortality rates have gone up, and they are currently at 70%. When looking at the hospitals, the rate is currently at 59% (Klenk, Hans-Dieter, 2016). Some health workers have been diagnosed with the infection in the United States, but it has not spread further to attack a large number of people. Having in mind that Ebola is a deadly disease, it is worth discussing it with the use of a lady called Anita who happened to be diagnosed with it in the year 2008.

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Anita was working at a hospital as a nurse, and she was always careful not to get no contact with people who seemed to be ailing from communicable diseases. In that case, she made sure that she wore protective gears as a way of maintaining health safety. There was a day when a patient was brought to the hospital, and he seemed to be healthy and did not show any signs of illnesses yet. Anita went ahead to get a blood sample from the patient so that she could be able to get the kind disease that was affecting him. Unfortunately, the blood splashed on her skin and some split into her eyes. Since she was a nurse, she had to undergo some tests to find out whether she had gotten some infections. The results came out and showed that she had been infected with Ebola.

After Anita was diagnosed to have Ebola, she did not believe and she, therefore, assumed that she was going to get well and that there was nothing to worry. After 21 days, she started showing some signs and symptoms of Ebola. For instance, Anita started some persistence cases of fever, headache, weakness, aches around the joints and muscles, vomiting, lack of appetite, diarrhea, coughing, red eyes, hiccups and chest pains. These symptoms became worse each day, and the laboratory tests that she went through showed that the number of white blood cells had gone down while the liver enzymes were also elevated. In that case, it was concluded that she was infectious because her blood had the virus. All these symptoms were a clear indication that the infection had reached a critical level and needed some severe intervention so that she could get back to normal health before losing her life.

The underlying cause of the infection was found out to be a virus was in Filoviridae family and genus of Ebolavirus. Ebola virus is of five types, and some of the other include Bundibugyo virus, Sudan virus, Tai forest virus also the Zaire Ebola virus. There is also the Reston virus which does not have any harm to humans, but it has been seen to have some effects on primates. All of them have some relations when looking at marburgvirus which has also been in existence for a while. In this case, the kind of virus that attacked Anita was called the Sudan Virus, and the effects that it had on her were very serious, and it was acting at a fast rate.

After that, Anita had to go for some treatment to check on whether she could recover. While at the hospital it was clear that no vaccine could be used to as to prevent one from getting the virus. In that case, she had to undergo the intensive support care to get the treatment. The treatment entailed the balancing of fluids in the patient and also the electrolytes in the body. The oxygen status of Anita also had to be maintained together with the blood pressure. There was also the conducting of a dialysis activity to be able to support the kidney if at all it had undergone some failure.

Anita received the treatments and kind of response that she was showing could not be recognized easily. She was even having blood oozing out of her nose and years, and this was as a sign that the infection had a reached a critical level. In that case, she had to be secluded from the rooms that were used by other patients because the infection transmits very fast. However, after one month while undergoing treatment, she started getting some energy, and her eyes became clear. The outcome is that she got healed but remained under seclusion to be sure that she was unwell. The recovery process had to be monitored as there was a likely hood of the disease emanating again. The fact that she got attacked by the virus and recovered meant that she was safer and was not likely to get it again having in mind that it was like a vaccine in her blood.

References

Center for Disease Control. (2014). CDC Guidance on Ebola Virus (EVD)." International Publications Media Group.

Klenk, Hans-Dieter. (2016). "Marbug and Ebola Viruses in Microbiology and Immunology." Springer=Verglag Telos.