A Report on the Zaire ebolavirus (Ebola)
Prepared for -----------------------
ENG 107 Technical Writing Class
Submitted on April 30, 2015
Written By -----------------
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to express my thanks to the people who have helped me throughout this
report. Firstly, I am most thankful to Professor -------------------- for providing me with the
guidance to write an effective and comprehensive report. I would also like to thank her for giving
me the proper formatting required. Next, I would like to thank Dr. ------------------for helping me
compile the necessary and proper resources for this report. Furthermore, I would like to thank ---
-------------------- for helping me edit and proof read my report wherever necessary before the
final submission. Lastly, I would also make a point of thanking my parents for supporting me
through the writing process of this report. (actually pol)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In 2014, there was an outbreak of Ebola in Africa. This outbreak spread more rapidly and
more aggressively than any recent infectious diseases. This caused a world-wide focus on the
issue. At the time, it seemed that it would not stop spreading and the disease would spread to
other nations uninhibited. There were many reasons why Ebola was allowed to spread so wildly
in Africa. One reason the outbreak happened is due to the diet of the Africans and their cooking
practices. Further yet, a more prevalent reason for the Ebola outbreak is that the African
infrastructure in medicine was below sub-par; with proper teaching and implementing of medical
practice the Ebola outbreak began to be beaten back. Lastly,a big reason for the Ebola outbreak
was the lack of cultural awareness of the disease and superstitious beliefs. With the proper care
and education of the African people, the world was able to stop the aggressive spread of Ebola.
Many doctors risked their lives to make sure that Ebola was stopped as soon as possible.
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INTRODUCTION
On March 14, 2014, "A new disease that we do not know the name was reported in the
prefecture of Macenta located 800 KM from Conakry, killing 8 people dead and several others
contaminated learned Africaguinee.com. Symptoms "manifested by anal and nasal bleeding.”
Seems to resemble Lassa Fever.”, Ebola, was discovered (Ebola Map). That day marked the
beginning of a disease that would shake all of West Africa and force the world to intervene.
Ebola’s scientific name is Ziare ebolavirus. An infection from a virus from the familyFiloviridae
and genus Ebolavirus causes Ebola.During hundreds of days, across multiple countries, the
Ebola virus infected 26,325 people and killed 10,905 (Center for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC)).
The transmission of the Ebola virus isprimarily caused by animals that can host the Ebola
virus. Natural carriers of the virus are fruit bats from the Pteropodidaefamily and bush meat,
monkeys, gorillas, chimpanzees, forest antelope, rodents, and porcupines found dead or ill in the
jungle. Once a human interacts with the infected host the virus spreads through any form of fluid
contact, direct or indirect. This means that anything that was wet from an Ebola carrier is now a
highly contagious contagion. Dead bodies can carry the Ebola virus; this makes disposal of
victims very difficult (World Health Organization (WHO)).
The symptoms of Ebola are fever, unexplained hemorrhaging, severe headache,
abdominal pain, muscle pain, vomiting, weakness, diarrhea, and fatigue. These symptoms can
appear anywhere from 2 to 21 days from exposure, but on average, the symptoms show up from
at 8 to 10 days after infection. There is no current cure for Ebola. However, Ebola can be
overcome based upon how well the medical care and overall immune system strength a person
has. The new-found immunity to Ebola after survival can last for at least 10 years (CDC). It is
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difficult to identify Ebola from other common infectious diseases. Symptom cause confirmation
can be ascertained by the following methods: antibody-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent
assay (ELISA), antigen-capture detection tests, serum neutralization test, reverse transcriptase,
polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay, electron microscopy, and virus isolation by cell
culture. The testing samples are an “extreme biohazard risk” and should be handled under
“maximum biological containment” (WHO).
Figure 1:
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Figure 2:
Figure 3:
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Figures 1, 2, and 3 illustrate the spread of Ebola over the course of hundreds of
days. Figure 1 is an early statistical data model of Ebola infection cases per day scale. Using
logistical models and IDEA models Dr. Felix Scholkmann extrapolates and plots the data to
provide a visual representation of the infectious disease’s growth. The first figure shows that the
virus is predicted to spread exponentially if there is no containment progress compared to the
linear modeling in the first 2 months of infections. Figure 2 is a remodeled graph after
containment measures were implemented. Notice the plateau in the projections. This
demonstrates that the infection rate has reached zero. Figure 3 lastly shows that now the virus is
finally dying out with proper containment measures. Enough data has been provided to properly
graph the growth of Ebola.
All of these figures show the severity of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. If there were
no containment measures implemented figure 1’s blue model would be true until everyone
started to die or become immune, millions could have died, an extreme severity case. The next
model illustrates that the implementation of containment will save millions of lives, a medium
severity case. Lastly, figure 3 confirms the projections with real world data, a low severity case.
Ebola is quickly dying out due to modern medical care techniques; however, this outbreak would
never have happened if Africa had followed modern trends with regards to lifestyle. Therefore,
the purpose of this report is to help illustrate and explore the reasons why the extremely deadly
outbreak of Ebola happened in West Africa and what is done to prevent and subdue such
outbreaks.
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BODY
Infectious diseases are a plague upon all of humanity. With that said, I am very invested
in this topic because of the reasons why the outbreak occurred. Each reason could have been
prevented easily if an effort had been made by both locals and other countries. Through research
of the contributing factors to the outbreak of Ebola virus, I found multiple times that the blatant
disregard for hygiene, cultural differences, and medical inferiority were the main contributors to
it. This led me to a trove of scientific and cultural research.
Reason #1: Food Consumption Practices
I saw a very disturbing video on YouTube called “Rat Meat and Ebola.” It features a man
roasting a rat over a trashcan fire. This man is in Ghana and is ignoring the national warning to
not eat bush meat. While he is cooking this rat he seems to be happily chanting “Ebola” while
slapping the rat as if it is just a game. This blatant disregard for cuisine hygiene is one of the
most horrifying and shocking examples of the nonsensical attitude towards Ebola at the time of
the outbreak. This clear problem most definitely contributed to the explosive growth of Ebola.
Additionally, another video on YouTube, by Vice, and called “Monkey Meat and the
Ebola Outbreak in Liberia,” shows the substandard practices of cuisine hygiene that has
attributed to the Ebola crisis. In the middle of the video, about at the 9 minute mark, it shows the
conditions of meat sale in an Ebola risk area. The locals are proudly eating meat that can be
contaminated and are very stubborn in their diet beliefs. The video then transitions to showing
the butchering of fresh bush meat. The wife cuts herself while preparing the raw meat. She then
proceeds to continue cutting the meat. This very obvious form of transition is apparent to even
the youngest children in western society; however, the people of Africa show no regard to the
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mixing of human and animal blood. What makes this practice even worse is that everyone in
Liberia, where the video takes place, believes that Ebola is just a governmental scheme to shaft
the people. These two videos just show a fraction of the millions of people who hold the same
beliefs. These conditions are more than perfect for an infectious disease to spread madly. Even as
bad as the conditions presented by these videos were, there are more reasons to why Ebola blew
up in West Africa.
Reason #2: Medical Inferiority
The state of the medical infrastructure of West Africa is in shambles compared to any
western country. The YouTube video by Vice called “Monkey Meat and the Ebola Outbreak in
Liberia” illustrates this throughout the entire first half of the video. The hospital for Ebola testing
is a facility from the 1980’s and the containment suits have to be re-used multiple times. The
video also points out that the Liberian government is horribly corrupt and ineffective. This can
be related to all West African countries. This lack of organization helped the outbreak
immensely.
Paul Farmer, a physician, visited Liberia after the Vice video. Ironically, Liberia became
an Ebola hotspot after the Vice reporter left. That outcome furthers the strength of the first
reason I proposed to the spread of Ebola. Farmer wrote about the medical infrastructure:
Both nurses and doctors are scarce in the regions most heavily affected by Ebola.
Even before the current crisis killed many of Liberia’s health professionals, there
were fewer than fifty doctors working in the public health system in a country of
more than four million people, most of whom live far from the capital. That’s one
physician per 100,000 population, compared to 240 per 100,000 in the United
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States or 670 in Cuba. Properly equipped hospitals are even scarcer than staff, and
this is true across the regions most affected by Ebola. Also scarce is personal
protective equipment (PPE): gowns, gloves, masks, face shields etc. In Liberia
there isn’t the staff, the stuff or the space to stop infections transmitted through
bodily fluids, including blood, urine, breast milk, sweat, semen, vomit and
diarrhoea. Ebola virus is shed during clinical illness and after death: it remains
viable and infectious long after its hosts have breathed their last. Preparing the
dead for burial has turned hundreds of mourners into Ebola victims.(Farmer)
This quote from Farmer quite clearly states the poor situation for West African medical strength.
Moreover, Farmer points out that the medical infrastructural damage caused by the Ebola
outbreak will be coupled with the AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria strain on the West African
government to “gravely affect” trade and commerce. This path of events causes a domino effect
to take place further forcing the medical system of West Africa to crumble. This then provides
aperfect environment for Ebola infections to increase. Then, this failure by the government
further bolsters the local’s mistrust of the government. This, in turn, causes another ideal
situation for Ebola to spread.
Reason #3: Culture and Superstitions
The culture in West Africa is immensely different from Western culture. The Vice video
from YouTube shows this best. It shows how Africans keep wild disease carrying animals as
pets. It also shows the lack of medical awareness. This lack of medical awareness is pointed out
be the man who keeps a monkey. He does not seem to understand that a monkey can carry a
deadly virus to humans while being perfectly healthy itself. Additionally, the first Ebola victim,
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patient zero, was a young boy who was playing with wild animals, something you would never
see in a western country. In his article, Stableford writes, “According to … colony of
insectivorous free
‐tailed bats.” This behavior is not encouraged in western society. The active
action of playing with wild animals and hunting them without proper precautions can easily
spread disease. Nevertheless, in West Africa, it is commonplace to play with wild animals or
keep them as pets. This is a cultural detriment to the West African society.
Another aspect of West African beliefs that attributed to the Ebola outbreak was
superstition. An article written by LudovicaIaccino details the effects of this superstition. A
meme was made to instill fear and panic into the West African locals by a popular image board
(Iaccino). I quote, “The meme did find its way onto the Nairaland (Nigerian forum), where one
user wrote a post claiming that Europe and America "hate Africans and worship an Ebola
demoness who they call 'Ebola-Chan'. They perform magical rituals in order to spread the
disease and kill people. They target the area they want to infect next using blood sacrifices”
(Iaccino). Also, Iaccino wrote, “Aid workers struggling against the virus in West Africa had
already previously reported the challenge of misinformation and mistrust among communities,
with some believing the disease to be the work of 'sorcerers'.”This shows how superstitious the
people are. A group of trolls (online provocateurs) effectively helped the spread of Ebola by
convincing the locals that is was a product of black magic and caused panic. Panic is the worst
possible outcome to any emergency.