Ebola in West Africa

 In the year 1976, near the Democratic Republic of Congo, a rare and deadly disease was discovered by Dr. Piot. The virus fatal illness, which is caused by several strains of zoonotic virus. So how is it spread if the virus is zoonotic you might ask? Well zoonotic virus is most commonly found in primates such as Bats which are found to be the primary hosts for the ebolavirus as it feed off other primates causing them to become sick and spread the virus to their relative primates. yet the tricky part comes down to how humans became infected by this disease? It is thought that it was spread to humans by consumption of infected animals in poor where sanitation was not held at a high regulation. As you know the Ebola virus can be spread by bodily floods or contact from an infected host. It's this method of transmission that allowed it to spread from a human host to care givers throughout the community, this is a predominant feature of epidemics. Another aspect of the Ebola Virus is the deadliness of the virus. The survival rate for patients with the Ebola Virus is astonishingly low.

In previous outbreaks, all of which happened in Africa, death rates ranged from 25 to 90 percent. The Ebola Virus causes hemorrhagic fevers, which is a definitive trait found in the filoviridae family of viruses. The family Filoviridae is the taxonomic home of many related viruses, either filoviruses or filovirids, that form filamentous infectious viral particles, also known as virions, and encode their genome in single-stranded negative-sense RNA. Symptoms from the Ebola Virus, that is found in the filoviridae family, are most commonly found within 8-10 days after exposer to the virus, while early signs can be seen with; fevers, headaches, joint and muscle aches, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting and stomach pain. But as the virus progresses and becomes more aggressive it will soon cause internal, external bleeding of organs, this can be seen in the eyes and even in bloody urine samples. it does depend on the strain of Ebola virus you have the fatalty rate of this disease is currently at 90%, since no common cure exists for the virus.

In Central Africa the first reported epidemic of the virus was in 1978, calling the virus Zaire know to us today as Ebola. Starting in a small village called Yambuku, where 318 people caught the virus and became critically ill, 280 of the villagers died shortly after, this leaving the death rate of the illness at 88%, So how are they working to fix this epidemic? While there is no known cure to the virus the international Federation of Red Cross and Red crescent work extremely hard to prevent on going outbreaks from occurring in South Africa. Through volunteer activities, Red Cross and Red Crescent are working hard to spread awareness of the issue to help prevent the disease while decreasing the fear of the at-risk community. These volunteers are also involved in disinfecting homes of confirmed cases, removing corps and tracking down who may have encountered the virus. And providing psychosocial to those family whom are affected.        

Ebola affects the families of south Africa families everyday starting in 1976 with a resulting death rate of nearly 280 people. Since then outbreaks soon to fluster in 2014 with more than 7,400 African's infected and 3,400 dead according to the World Health Organization. Since this these outbreaks seem continual, with many obstacles to be overcome in the community and thousands of young children to grow through the deaths of their parents they must obtain urgent special attention to support them in their time of need to restore the communities for the years to come, so that victim's children dont have the sense of abandonment or unwanted. But why is there no cure or vaccine in the market to help these people? The simple fact of the matter is that drug companies have no financial motivation to research the issue, which will cost millions one medications and cures for such a small population of infected especially a small community that lacks the funds to pay for such treatment. While many company such as Tekmira Pharmaceuticals and North Carolina's BioCryst are researching the matter the closest cure that has been found is by pharmaceutical company called Fijifil is working off an existing Flu medication as a temporary treatment for the Ebola virus. The realistic estimate for a cure for this disease to be found is anywhere from 10- 15 years away, this being a harsh realization for the slowly diminishing population of South Africa.        

How does the South African community feel about the spread of Ebola from one outbreak to several you might ask? The idea of an unstoppable virus sweeping through the country side terrifies the south African community, leaving many schools with no other option than to close their doors to the children of south Africa. But this isn't the only thing that is crumbling the community, common public service deliveries are failing and scaring the community as doctors abandon their post in the fear of the virus. Even South Africa's transportation of tourist has been but by more than half in the fear of Ebola. So how does the community feel about this outrageous epidemic? The people of South Africa are terrified and don't know what to do other the try their best to stay sanitary in hope that the Ebola virus won't spread to them next, after all you can simply catch the dieses by simply touching a single drop of sweat from someone who is infected with the virus.         

South Africa is now not only at risk due to the outbreak of Ebola in the scared, but also falls at risk financially as (UNDG), United Nation Development Group states that the South Africa may lose at least 3.6$ per year between 2014- 2017. Leaving an important impact on the stages of human development as the regions capita income will fall $18.00per year. Affecting the poverty rate to increase 0.5% but estimated to increase the poverty overall by 1.8%, due to the outbreaks. This will also increase food insecurity in the community making it even more fragile then it also has become in the past few years.

Nevertheless, there are still a fighting chance for Africa, as the united states and neighboring countries comes to help contain the hazardous outbreak with a strategy plan which may help Africa in the long run .The united nations plan find and control the epidemic at its source in West Africa following this they have decided to blunt the economic , social and political tolls In the region reliving stress on the community and economic status helping the country to grow as one without falling apart. The tricky part to all of this is the final steps to their plan this being to engage and coordinate with broader global audience, so that they can receive help with the problem of Ebola. While fortifying a global health security infrastructure, this will allow West Africa to not only feel secure at home with the ongoing issue, but also allow them to fearless of what is to come in their future.

Therefore, my conclusion on the social issue in south Africa is that the only thing that they have the power to do at this point is to stay strong and have faith in what they can't see. Believe and trust in their neighboring countries to help them where they are slacking and to never give up no matter how bad the situation seems with the fear of Ebola spreading through the country it leaves nothing except a negative impact and that Africa can become a healthy functioning country again in just a matter of time when they overcome their fears as a community.

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