Soumya Shraddhya Paul, Amity University Noida
On Saturday, WHO official Alfred Ki-Zerbo declared the end of the current Ebola epidemic. After Guinea defeated the second Ebola outbreak that erupted in the West African states on February 14th, 2021 which infected around 16 people and claimed the life of 12, the second wave is reported to have been started from the forested Nzerekore region hailing in the southeast part of Guinea. The first Ebola outbreak came in 2014-2016, which killed around 11,300 people that mostly belong from the regions of Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. To control the spread of the Ebola epidemic Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) put on guidelines, enhanced cross-border surveillance along with that, they even did contact tracing. Health Minister Remy Lamah said in a press conference in Conakry “I solemnly declare the end of the Ebola outbreak in Guinea”.
What is Ebola?
The Ebola virus was first discovered in the year 1976 and was found near the Ebola River, which is currently in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ebola virus belongs to a species of Zaire ebolavirus which causes Ebola virus disease (EVD) formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever. It comes from the genus Ebolavirus which again has six species identified: Zaire, Bundibugyo, Sudan, Tai Forest, Reston, and Bombali. The virus causes severe bleeding, organ failure that can lead to death. Currently, EVD has a fatality rate of 50% and can be controlled by vaccination.
Ebola mostly spreads through direct contact i.e., through broken skin or mucous membranes, blood or body fluid, objects that have come in contact with the infected person through blood, feces, vomit, etc.
It was seen that health care workers were frequently affected by the virus due to their close contact with the infected person, during burial ceremonies the direct contact with the dead body also caused the virus to spread, it’s also important to note that pregnant women who recovered from EVD can also carry the virus in there breastmilk as well as the amniotic fluid which is unlike COVID.
What is an Epidemic and how did Western Africa win over it?
Epidemic refers to the outbreak of infectious diseases restricted to a particular geographical area like country or continent. Since Ebola was an infectious disease restricted to areas in the western part of the African continent, it is called an epidemic.
During the first wave of the epidemic, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention along with the World Health Organization (WHO) had put several relevant guidelines. These guidelines played a major role in containing the spread of the virus to other places in addition to a global spread of infection. WHO even shipped around 24,000 vaccine doses which inoculated 11,000 people as well as 2,800 frontline workers.
The vaccine used for Ebola is the attenuated recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV) vaccine currently being manufactured by Merck.
USAID (United States Agency for International Development) also did a substantial amount of work by investing 2.4 billion dollars, Israel also contributed 8.75 million dollars to the United Nations (UN) Trust funds.
Contact tracing and fever surveillance along with safe burial practices majorly helped to contain the spread of the virus. People and the community worked together to sustain the virus especially since Africa is in major crises due to COVID as well.
In the end, we can conclude that as of now all the affected states have majorly won against the Ebola epidemic.
Also read: The fate of transplanted stem cell is unpredictable
References:
- https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/second-ebola-outbreak-officially-over-in-guinea-announces-who-101624102694348.html
- https://www.who.int/health-topics/ebola
- https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/history/summaries.html
- The Corrosion Prediction from the Corrosion Product Performance
- Nitrogen Resilience in Waterlogged Soybean plants
- Cell Senescence in Type II Diabetes: Therapeutic Potential
- Transgene-Free Canker-Resistant Citrus sinensis with Cas12/RNP
- AI Literacy in Early Childhood Education: Challenges and Opportunities
2 thoughts on “The current Ebola Epidemic comes to an end”