The essay discussion will focus on applying nursing research and epidemiology about the selected communicable disease. The paper will develop a thorough analysis of Ebola. The analyzed concept will include a detailed description of this communicable disease, including the treatment, complications, and mode of transmission. The other areas to be addressed in the article will include evaluating the social determinants, epidemiologic triangle, national agency, the role of community health nurse, and the global implication of Ebola.
Ebola Description
Ebola is one of the deadliest communicable diseases that often cause bleeding, diarrhea, body aches, and fever. The disease is a viral hemorrhagic fever that most affects primates including human beings. Ebolaviruses cause the disorder. The virus results in a condition that often has a high case fatality rate. A perfect example of ebolaviruses is Bombali ebolavirus (Hoenen et al., 2016, p.4). It is the most recent species of Ebola causing virus after being discovered in Sierra Leon. After a host is infected, they exhibit some symptoms. These signs include severe muscle weakness, headache, sore throat, muscle pain, and fever (high temperature). After this, other symptoms develop including low liver and kidney functions, a rash, vomiting, stomach pain, and diarrhea. However, the most severe sign includes individual bleeding from the mouth, nose, eyes, and ears. The patients also experience internal bleeding leading to death.
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The mode of transmission include people coming into direct contact with the Ebola virus host. These hosts include porcupines, forest antelope, monkeys, fruit bats, gorillas, and chimpanzees. Therefore, when a person contacts secretion, blood, or other body fluids of these hosts, they end up contacting Ebola. Human hosts also influence the transmission of this disease. When a person contracts secretions, body fluids, and blood of an infected human, they will be infected with the condition. Also, materials (like clothing and bedding) and surface often occupied by an ailing person increase the possibility of developing the disease. The infection with this virus leads to complications. One of the difficulties arising from this development is the likelihood of visual impairment. It is estimated that 40 percent of survivors suffer blindness as a result of phthisis bulbi, hypotony, optic neuropathy, retinal scarring, and cataract ( Deen et al., 2017, p.1430 ).
The reason why this disease is marked as deadly is that there exists no cure for Ebolaviruses. However, there are some treatments by medical practitioners to address the symptoms that one exhibit. One such process is the introduction of supportive care-rehydration that contains intravenous or oral fluids. The procedure helps the patients to remain hydrated. The other treatments include drug therapies, immune therapies, and blood products which aim at improving survival through suppressing specific symptoms.
Lastly, the demographics of interest of this condition include a 50 percent fatality rate. It implies that after a person is infected, they only have 50% survival rates. According to the available data, during the discovery of the condition in 1976, 430 people have been confirmed dead in 731 confirmed cases; this is more than half patients. The morbidity rate is influenced by the region that will be affected by a specific outbreak. According to recent outbreaks, the morbidity rate varies between 20 to 90 percent. About prevalence and incidence, Ebola has mostly been reported in the West Africa region. More specifically, since 2014, Sierra Leon, Liberia, and Guinea have constituted 99 percent of the reported incidences ( CDC, 2018 ). Despite incidences of Ebola being rare, this deadly viral illness is listed as reportable. The community is urged to report the incidence immediately they see the signs such as bleeding through the eyes, nose, and ears. In the U.S, these cases are supposed to be reported at the NNDSS (National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System).
Social Determinants
Human actions and social interaction has a substantial role in the outbreak and the spread of Ebola. The determinants of health in this particular scenario includes conditions that the affected community live, work, born, or grow within a specific area. These determinants are often influenced by local levels, resources, technology application, and money resources. One particular example that is influencing the development of Ebola is the lack of adequate public health education. Most people lack adequate knowledge on how to identify the possible outbreak, handle the affected, and proper prevention measures they can adopt to reduce the incidences of spread. The failure of effective education programs explains why there is a likelihood of escalation of risk since individuals lack detailed knowledge about the disease.
The other social determinant is the high level of mobility, especially in regions that are prone to Ebola outbreak. West African nations have porous borders that encourage the natural movement of people from one part to another. According to several surveys, the population mobility, especially in the affected countries is rated as seven times in comparison to other areas across the globe. Such an exciting fact explains why the movement of communities if affected states can be a social determiner of Ebola outbreak in the region. Most of these individuals move as a result of poverty and end up increasing the risk of interacting with infected persons or contacting ebolaviruses from a host.
Another social determinant is the severe shortage of nurses and other medical practitioners. Health care personnel play a crucial role, especially in providing ideal first aid assistance and even helping in preventing the spread of this condition. However, countries like Sierra Leon, Nigeria, Gabon, and Congo suffer from a severe shortage of these persons. The most recent 2014 outbreak in Sierra Leon, Liberia, and Guinea provide an excellent example to address this particular point. The three states had one or two doctors being responsible for about 100,000 individuals. The ratio reveals the scarcity of healthcare resources including care providers. The worst part is that out of this small number of available physicians and nurses, about 700 were infected with the virus, resulting in about 350 of them succumbing to this disease ( CDC, 2018 ). These infections are as a result of the workload burden that resulted in these professionals failing to take ideal protective measures when handling the affected persons.
Epidemiologic Triangle
Epidemiologists use the epidemiologic triangle as a tool for illustrating how a disease is spreading. The triangle describes the environment, agent, and host of the analyzed disease. In this case, the agent for Ebola is Ebolavirus. There exist six different species of this virus. These agents include “Tai Forest ebolavirus, Zaire ebolavirus, Reston ebolavirus, and Bombali ebolavirus. The other two are Bundibugyo ebolavirus and Sudan ebolavirus” ( Dallatomasina et al., 2015, p.449 ). A host usually carries the agents. The typical host for this condition is fruit bats. The virus is also common among wild animals such as duikers, baboons, gorillas, and chimpanzees. In relations to the environment, the ideal surface for ebolavirus is the solid surfaces which increase the level of concentration. However, the concentrations in such areas decrease significantly within a short period.
There exist special notification and considerations to communities that live in areas that are prone to this condition. A perfect example is for a notification prompt for school administration in the regions that have endured recent outbreaks. The notification for learning institutions helps to create awareness about the condition and also mobilize resources that could prove essential in addressing all the highlighted condition. Frequently, the United Nations (UN) and WHO (World Health Organization) send a detailed document that acts as a guideline for the community and students on how to tackle the spread and fatality of Ebola. The information contains core principles that organizations need to address when opening and running of the school. Such notifications include restraining sick students or tutors from coming to the learning facilities. The other consideration is discouraging physical contact, which is a leading mode of transmission.
Role of the Community Health Nurse
The nurse plays a critical role in addressing the issue of Ebola. Nurses have direct interaction with the community and the affected individuals. Their roles include creating awareness to the affected communities on the appropriate ways to minimize the spread of Ebola. One area that these nurses help in attempts to mitigate the spread include the proper application of research and evidence-based practice. Research role constitutes of follow-up, data analysis, data collection, reporting, and findings. According to Carter et al., (2018), a nurse promotes finding by enhancing collecting relevant details about the condition. The fact that nurses are in direct contact with patients, they can quickly identify the symptoms, severity, and influence of any adopted treatment procedure. The collected data facilitate analysis as these nurses will analyze the information to decide if a particular intervention is effective in suppressing ebolaviruses. After this, the nurse ensures follow-up to see the longterm effects of Ebola on the surviving victims. Such a role ensures that they present a detailed report on the effective mechanisms and also the encountered challenges in dealing with this communicable disease.
Community health nurses provide information that helps in creating demographic statistics about Ebola. Such component will comprise of appropriate individual information including details such as occupational status, education level, and country of birth, age, marital status, and gender. Such demographic data is critical in proper profiling of the affected communities. The available statistics help in creating a proper map of the affected region. The identification of the disease spread area will be vital in organizing resources to curb the fast spread of Ebola. Also, the availability of detailed demographic information is critical since it provides a proper setting for involved health organizations to conduct a collaborative intervention. Therefore, demographic data is critical in the efforts to deal with the increased cases of Ebola outbreaks.
National Agency
Multiple national and international agencies have often deployed resources to end the spread of Ebola, especially around the West Africa region. One perfect example of an organization that is actively engaged in this matter is Samaritan’s Purse (Global Citizen, 2014). The organization has offices in all the West Africa states that have often been labeled as outbreak-prone regions for Ebola. The organization has its operation offices in over 100 countries. Samaritan’s Purse is a missionary organization that is founded on Christianity virtues. Samaritan’s Purse has facilitated human empowerment through financing projects such as enhanced access to healthcare services.
Samaritan’s Purse has been directly involved in efforts to curb the outbreak and spread incidences of Ebola, especially in West African countries. The organization has undertaken steps and activities that directly aid the fight against Ebola. In 2014, the organization provided 100 ton of health equipment in Liberia and Sierra Leon. These materials included disinfectants, face masks, and rubber gloves. Currently, this organization is helping in setting up of local healthcare centers in these countries. Samaritan’s Purse is also fighting Ebola through continued training of volunteers and health workers on proper mechanisms to address outbreaks and spread of Ebola.
Global Implication of Ebola
On the global platform, Ebola has resulted in devastating economic implication for the global society. Given that Africa has the highest number of outbreak cases, the resulting factor is the reduced number of economic development as more resources is directed to affected areas informed of personnel and financial aids. More specifically, the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leon, Liberia, and Guinea resulted in a general decline in economic growth in West Africa. During this particular period, private investors halted investment plans; there was the imposition of restriction on border movement, and also government resources were employed towards dealing with this issue. The result of this was a general decline of an estimated $2.2 billion in GDP for the African economy ( Carter et al., 2018, p16 ). Therefore, the Ebola outbreak sparks harsh economic conditions that in the long run implies the global platform.
Ebola outbreak in countries like Sierra Leon has often affected their neighboring states. A good example is a developing situation in Ghana. During the 2014 outbreak, Ghana suffered economic repercussions for being geographically close to Liberia and Sierra Leon. The country suffered from the direct withdrawal of foreign investors who feared the spread of this disease to Ghana. Hotels in Ghana recorded a 30% occupancy rate after investors started withdrawing (Kentikelenis, King, McKee & Stuckler, 2015, p.69). Ghana enhanced their screening of individuals coming and leaving the country. They are also improving health infrastructures that are key in dealing with the fear of the possible spread of Ebola.
Lastly, despite most Ebola cases being recorded in the West Africa area, this communicable disease is entirely endemic to this region. Ebola’s single origin can be pinpointed to the West Africa region with Sierra Leon, Liberia, and Guinea being the countries with widespread cases. The possible explanation is because of the existing tropical forests which are home to agents of Ebola. These forests are home to fruit bats and primates who are the leading components that increase the risk of a possible outbreak. On a global platform, some confirmed cases are directly linked to West Africa. Examples include four cases between 2014 and 2016 in the U.S., 1 in Spain, 20 in Nigeria, 8 in Mali, 1 in Senegal, and one case in Italy (CDC, 2018). All these patients had been in one of the three affected countries during the 2014 and 2016 periods.
In conclusion, Ebola is a viral hemorrhagic fever that often results with the patient suffering from bleeding, body aches, and fever. The condition is mostly caused by Ebolaviruses which primarily transmitted through contacting secretion and body fluids. The disease can cause severe issues as there is no cure. However, nurses and physicians offer interventions that help in reducing the adverse effects of this condition. The demographic statistics also underpin the severe nature of Ebola, since it has a severity rate of 50%. There exist social determinants that influence an outbreak and spread of Ebola. A good determiner is poor health education among most individuals in a community. About Ebola’s epidemiologic triangle, the host includes primates, fruit bats, and forest antelopes. The ideal environment is a general surface with the agent being Ebolavirus. In the effort to address this concern, a community health nurse influences a lot of undertakings. They collected data as they are in proximity to the patients, thus helping to develop a strategic intervention. Lastly, there exist multiple local and international bodies that help in fighting this pandemic. One such agency is Samaritan Purse. The group focus on West Africa since cases are reported in this area. Such an undertaking help in dealing with global and local consequences arising from the Ebola outbreak.
References
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