According to the World Health Organization, Ebola first appeared in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks, in Nzara, Sudan, and in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. The latter was in a village situated near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name. Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a severe, often fatal illness in humans, and disease outbreaks have a fatality rate of up to 90 per cent (Leroy, 2004). The infectious disease is transmitted to people as a result of direct contact with bodily fluids containing the virus. The Ebola virus is killing thousands of innocent people around the world, quickly becoming an epidemic which strikes fear in the hearts of people due to the way it spreads and the quick, yet painful death that follows
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No treatment, vaccination, or antiviral therapy to treat Ebola hemorrhagic fever exists. Currently, patients are given intensive care support such as those that aid in preventing shock, maintaining blood pressure and oxygen levels. One of the main supportive treatments involving keeping the patients well hydrated and helping them to breathe as easily as possible, so that they attempt to beat the virus with the strength of their own immune system. Although this type of intensive treatment is not guaranteed to help a patient recover, it can happen. Timo Wolf, together with his colleagues, in his research article titled “Severe Ebola virus disease with vascular leakage and multi-organ failure: treatment of a patient in intensive care” detail one such case, where an aid worker who got infected in Sierra Leone was transported to Germany and given state-of-the-art intensive care. The patient recovered. The main cause for this recovery is believed by the researchers to be due to the effective treatment of vascular leakage as well as the separately treating the multi-organ failure. A combination of antibiotics, use of ventilator machines, and “renal replacement therapy” (Wolf, p. 1428) was used to treat the …show more content…
In particular, researchers work with immune plasma from animals in cases of emergency prophylaxis when laboratory workers or medical staff accidentally comes into contact with the virus. In a research study conducted by Natalya M. Kudoyarova-Zubavichene and her team, such immunoglobulin preparations were found to be effective in treating those infected. According to the researchers, these immunoglobulin preparations are the first of its kind used for prompt treatment of exposure to the Ebola virus. (Kudoyarova-Zubavichene, p. s223) It must be noted that all four patients on whom the tests were conducted were accidentally infected during research into the Ebola virus. This research is a milestone towards combatting Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever (EHF) and it is in our best interest to continue this research and even to start clinical trials and other tests to bring this treatment closer to being approved as treatment for EHF. Other alternatives for the treatment of EHF include blood transfusions from convalescent patients, resulting in a 12.5 per cent case fatality rate among 8 patients, as opposed to almost 90 per cent overall case fatality rate for the virus. (Mupapa, p. s18) Another alternative is attempting to use antibodies to neutralize the Ebola virus. (Maruyama, p. S235) In the case of blood transfusion, it
No treatment, vaccination, or antiviral therapy to treat Ebola hemorrhagic fever exists. Currently, patients are given intensive care support such as those that aid in preventing shock, maintaining blood pressure and oxygen levels. One of the main supportive treatments involving keeping the patients well hydrated and helping them to breathe as easily as possible, so that they attempt to beat the virus with the strength of their own immune system. Although this type of intensive treatment is not guaranteed to help a patient recover, it can happen. Timo Wolf, together with his colleagues, in his research article titled “Severe Ebola virus disease with vascular leakage and multi-organ failure: treatment of a patient in intensive care” detail one such case, where an aid worker who got infected in Sierra Leone was transported to Germany and given state-of-the-art intensive care. The patient recovered. The main cause for this recovery is believed by the researchers to be due to the effective treatment of vascular leakage as well as the separately treating the multi-organ failure. A combination of antibiotics, use of ventilator machines, and “renal replacement therapy” (Wolf, p. 1428) was used to treat the …show more content…
In particular, researchers work with immune plasma from animals in cases of emergency prophylaxis when laboratory workers or medical staff accidentally comes into contact with the virus. In a research study conducted by Natalya M. Kudoyarova-Zubavichene and her team, such immunoglobulin preparations were found to be effective in treating those infected. According to the researchers, these immunoglobulin preparations are the first of its kind used for prompt treatment of exposure to the Ebola virus. (Kudoyarova-Zubavichene, p. s223) It must be noted that all four patients on whom the tests were conducted were accidentally infected during research into the Ebola virus. This research is a milestone towards combatting Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever (EHF) and it is in our best interest to continue this research and even to start clinical trials and other tests to bring this treatment closer to being approved as treatment for EHF. Other alternatives for the treatment of EHF include blood transfusions from convalescent patients, resulting in a 12.5 per cent case fatality rate among 8 patients, as opposed to almost 90 per cent overall case fatality rate for the virus. (Mupapa, p. s18) Another alternative is attempting to use antibodies to neutralize the Ebola virus. (Maruyama, p. S235) In the case of blood transfusion, it