The spread of Ebola has been a controversy in the United States the past few months. Ebola, named after the Ebola River in Zaire, is an infectious and generally fatal disease marked by fever and severe internal bleeding spread through contact with infected body fluids. In 1976 Ebola’s first outbreak contaminated 284 people in Sudan and Zaire with a death rate of 53 percent. A few months after that over 300 more people were infected having a death rate of 88 percent, showing how deadly and rapid this disease can be. Despite the great effort to find this disease through experienced and dedicated research, Ebola’s natural state was never identified. The death rate for this disease has varied from 25-90 percent in the past.
To prevent fatal tragedies, we must catch the disease early with specific protocols that will help prevent the disease from spreading and also help people get better. Considering the nature of the Ebola virus, and the medical infrastructure we have to combat its spread, the diagnosis of some cases on American soil shouldn’t be reason to panic. We have a mass amount of tools and public health practices to readily take on its spread.
Yet because the virus is so dangerous, and feared, its arrival in America would likely to trigger a vigorous response from our public health establishment. To stop the spread of Ebola, we must spend more money dealing with this case in Africa, and close the borders to travelers from West Africa so that we can save money in the long run. It is not just about saving money. That is the least of our concern. We want Ebola to be terminated so that we can save millions of innocent lives.
First to take full control we must make a better effort to send funds to the highly infected countries in western Africa. The United Nations trust fund for Ebola is around one hundred thousand dollars. This is not nearly enough money to control and contain the disease. The nation believes that to fully control and contain the disease the United Nations needs to fund one billion dollars. This money I believe to be necessary to really deal with this incident, so we can stop the spread before it gets out of control. Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general, had earlier told reporters “that the trust fund, announced in mid-September, had received $20 million in cash.
His aides later clarified that the $20 million amount referred to pledges, not cash. ” (Ban Ki moon 2014). 20 million dollars sounds nice, however pledges are no guarantee, and 20 million dollars is just a small fraction of what we really need. The United Nations is not the only group to fund money for this virus. Private organizations donated about 350 million dollars to the United Nations, but in reality the money that can be used to fight this disease is very low. This will lead to not enough funds to really help contain the disease. According to New York Times “The number of Ebola cases is expected to exceed 9,000 this week, with a total of 4,500 deaths, the World Health Organization said earlier in the day” (WHO 2014).
If funds were raised we could absolutely defend this death rate and easily cut it in half in a short amount of time. The problem is we are not getting these funds, and the virus is spreading like wildfire. “We need urgent global response” ban says. (Ban 2014). The United Nations is also attempting to call for help. They are rallying other countries to donate cash, and any other contributions, from helicopters to protective suits.
These donations are going to three heavily effected countries in West Africa. These countries are Guinnea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Talk is cheap and that is what everyone seems to be doing, Leading with talk and not finishing with action. We say we are trying to help, but really are we doing enough? I say no and talking needs to stop and action needs to step up. Some people believe that we should do nothing to stop the disease from spreading in different countries, and let them resolve it on their own. This is absurd due to the fact that these countries don’t have the correct medicine nor education to treat a disease of this magnitude.
Also they do not have the funds. If we allow this `disease to be untreated in Africa, sooner or later the disease will migrate to America where we will have to spend just as much money if not more to get rid of the disease. Not doing anything about this disease could lead to millions of people dieing. Also if we don’t take action now Ebola could mutate into a worse strand of the disease making it more deadly. Another huge controversy with the Ebola virus is if we should allow air travel to and from West 1 / 3 African countries.
This has already caused problems. “Mr. Obama’s senior health advisors have met scathing criticism after two nurses became infected at a Texas hospital by a patient who later died. US officials now believe one of the nurses, Amber Vinson, may have been sick and contagious for four days and flown on two flights before being diagnosed with the disease. ”(BBC News 2014). Since this incident airports have been doing a better job of trying to reduce the risk of people flying with the disease. They are using infrared thermometers that acquire no touching to the patient.
However a man still passed through 4 screenings without being even thought to have Ebola. He did and he is the reason two nurses were infected with the disease. The flaw of these screenings is simple. Ebola symptoms can be unnoticed for up to 21 days. “The disease wouldn’t show up on a blood test, let alone a thermometer. There was no way to know that this particular passenger was at risk. ” (Thomas Friedan 2014). This shows perfectly why we need to stop air traffic completely from these countries.
However we should still send volunteer doctors and nurses to these countries under the right precautions so the disease is not brought back here. Although these thermometers are a step in the right direction, there are too many flaws for it to be the safest route. Fevers can be temporarily lowered by simple medications such as Tylenol or Advil, and people working at airports are in such a rush to get people on and off planes there procedure techniques aren’t perfect and may be taken too lightly at times.
For the man who brought Ebola had a 91-degree temperature coming to America. This man was of little to no concern due to the fact that people with the thermometers were looking for dangerously high temperatures. Also the thermometers aren’t always accurate.
“You can just go to the ladies room and splash some water on your forehead. You’re going to exhibit evaporative cooling, even if you have a high fever. And you’ll just sail through,” says Pompeii. Also Pompeii states “When you are holding something away from the individual, there is dust, air current, humidity, and these things can affect the temperature measurement,” says Pompeii. “And your inch is different than my inch, which means everyone is measuring slightly differently.
” (Pompeii 2014). The thermometer may work for some, but all it takes is one temperature to be falsely taken. One person with Ebola can infect thousands. The people we come in contact with on the daily basis are higher than we think. Although cutting off all air travel from these countries will lose us money and somewhat take away rights of the people, our country needs to take all measures to make sure that the people in our country are safe and that Ebola doesn’t get too out of control where we cant contain it.
If we allow air travel People with a fever will find ways to hide their fever when being checked at the airport. This shows why the thermometers are too big of a risk to take with this deadly of a disease. In the end, there is a huge controversy in America and the world with Ebola, an infectious and generally fatal disease marked by fever and severe internal bleeding, spread through contact with infected body fluids. The fight against Ebola is just starting, and has a long way to go before we can fully take control. We must take the safe acts of donating, and funding money to African countries and also stop the air travel from these countries.
If we don’t take these precautions, Ebola can become a very dangerous disease that could infect millions of Americans. Not only could it infect millions, but also could kill millions. President Obama needs to come up with the right plan, and take the necessary steps to keep our country and world safe. Although we lose money in the process, there is no price for a humans life and that is why we must at all measures do whatever it takes to control and contain this disease, even if it is at the cost of billions of dollars.
Works cited Klibanoff, E. (2014, October 14). Why A Thermometer Is A Good Tool For Airport Ebola Screenings. Retrieved October 19, 2014. Menkor, I. (2014, October 14). Controversial Nimba Ebola Funds Distribution Backfires. Retrieved October 19, 2014. Ebola virus disease. (2014, September 1). Retrieved October 19, 2014, from http://www. who. int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/ Sengupta, S. (2014, October 16). New U. N. Ebola Trust Fund Falls Far Short of Goal. Retrieved 2 / 3 October 19, 2014. POWERED BY TCPDF (WWW. TCPDF. ORG).