During this project, I took the time to blog about the topic of my choice. For my line of inquiry, I chose to research about the Ebola virus. My preference in particular is learning more about scientific things and the current Ebola outbreak offered many different sources with lots of information. The best source I found was Moran Ki and his peer reviewed article. I found it when searching the NCBI, which is a government database focused on biotechnology. In the article I found hundreds of useful information, but I did not include a lot of it because it would be a repeat of my previous entries. Alongside his findings, were charts and statistics to support his claim. Also, he graduated from an accredited university in South Korea, where he focused on disease control and policy, which gave him a major lead over my other sources.
Another accredited source of mine is Salaam-Blyther, who's article I read to understand how Ebola affects other countries around the globe. One major reason I believe she is one of my best sources is because she originally came from the World Health Organization before she started her new career as part of the Congressional Research Service in the Library of Congress. This means that any information from her is probably valid and trustworthy because they provide research the the United States Congress. Some problems that I faced when conducting my research was writing it in my own words. There is only so many other ways to write factual information down. I would sit for hours on end just to come up with one blog entry, but in the end I felt accomplished and I could not ask for anything more. Another problem I faced was keeping my paragraphs short. If you look at my blogs, it seems as though all my paragraphs are these monstrous blocks of text. If I knew better, I would have separated the information into multiple paragraphs. That way, it would not be so dreadful to read. Originally, my inquiry question was what is Ebola and why are people so concerned about it. As I continued my research I found the answer to both of those questions, but this allowed more to come in, such as how can it be treated or are we prepared for a global outbreak? There was never a need to adjust my line of inquiry because anything I wrote about was going to be based on Ebola. I am always willing to accept new information based on my research, but this being a factual matter, there really is no room for opinions. The only blog entry of mine that really had an opinion was my first blog. "Should we really be afraid of Ebola?" There were many opinions my source used to make his point, but I never had anything to counter them, so I went along with them. The most interesting thing I learned throughout this research blog project was the fact that people are actually creating experimental drugs, such as the ZMAPP. Not stated in my previous blog, but I just recently found out that before the antibodies are injected into the tobacco plant. First, the virus is injected into mice and the ones that survive are harvested for the antibodies. Then, they are injected into the tobacco plants for replication. As a researcher, I found new sources to find other than news sites. Now, I have access to an entire database of information, which before, I had no access to. Also, I found the NCBI, where tons of trustworthy information is stored. If I were to continue this blog, I would want to research more on the cultural spread of the disease. Meaning, how does the aspect of culture help to spread the disease. Many people in Africa touch the bodies of their dead relatives as a last goodbye. Do they know what they are getting into? Or is it just out of respect and it does not matter to them? After all my research, I can say that Ebola is a deadly disease, but it is nothing to be too terribly afraid of. Before, I thought that it spread fast and if one person got it all surrounding that person would get it, but you actually need to come in contact with the fluids of the infected person. I wanted my blog to be directed towards mature individuals who are interested in the disease because people need to be able to take this seriously and accept different viewpoints. They need to understand that it is real, but there is nothing to be afraid of. Ebola virus disease has a very high fatality rate and if we are not prepared, it could spread to other people and eventually to other countries. This scholarly article written by Moran Ki discusses just that. The Ebola virus has been an ongoing threat since the discovery of the disease in 1976, when a 44 year old man from northern Zaire, or today the Democratic Republic of Congo, came down with the illness. The doctors did not suspect any such disease because it had never been heard of before. On September 8th, he became the first person to die from the disease. Since this disease was new, the doctors had no idea what they were facing up with. There were 17 employees that were treating this guy and they all were exposed, although only 13 of them were actually infected, only 2 of them survived. (Ki, 2) The scary thing about a new disease is that no one knows what to do with it or how to isolate it. In this case the doctors thought it was some kind of malaria, so they treated it as such. They ended up being wrong and caused an outbreak of 318 cases. It was believed that it spread to that many people through the use of syringes which were sometimes washed between patients and boiled at the end of the day. (Ki, 2) This is not a very sanitary practice and it is no wonder that the disease spread to so many people. If they new about the disease prior before this, the doctors probably would have been wearing protective gear like today and thrown away used syringes. The current outbreak started with a two year old child from Guinea, who started seeing symptoms on December 2, 2013. As before, Ebola was not suspected, so the health care workers and family of this child all became infected with the disease. According to Ki, the virus eventually spread to nearby regions, including Sierra Leone and Liberia. (Ki, 3) I believe that if the health care system of these countries was more organized and funded, then there would not be a problem with the Ebola disease. Here in the United States we separate those who are sick from the non sick. Which reduces the spread of any type of disease. While in these countries there are not enough resources to handle every patient, which results in the spread of disease. People who come to the hospital because of Ebola spread it to the patients who do not have it. The disease needs to be isolated from the outside, so that it cannot spread. Again, Ki describes another issue where "mourners often physically touch the body of the deceased." (Ki, 5) I have discussed this in a previous entry, but this is when the body is most infectious. Allowing people to touch the body only spreads the disease even more. The people need to be informed about this problem. It is life or death in most cases. One last concern that Ki has about the worlds health care systems, is if we have a place in each country to isolate the disease. He suggests that every country needs to have a biosafety level 4 (BL4) because Ebola "belongs to the highest biosafety level designation." He investigates South Korea in his article where he found that they only have BL3 isolation rooms which are mainly used to handle airborne diseases such as the flu. He then suggests that "government-designated quarantine units" be prepared as soon as possible. These will be equipped with all the necessary tools to handle the Ebola virus. (Ki, 6) South Korea is one of the most advanced countries to date and to see that they only have BL3 units is very concerning. The world needs to be prepared to isolate the disease on the spot before it can spread all around. I would say that most of the world is not prepared if an outbreak were to occur, but building these BL4 units to help isolate will help a lot. If that means putting in a little bit of many to save potentially thousands of people, then it's worth it. The entry compares very much to my previous entries because it shows in detail how the Ebola outbreak started. Walking around with the disease unknowingly is one of the main causes of spread. A person that came in contact could end up in a different country only to spread it there. The world needs to be prepared to isolate these diseases when they appear. Moran Ki is one of my most credible sources. He graduated from the National Cancer Center Korea in South Korea with a focus in Cancer Control and Policy. His work has been submitted to the National Center for Biotechnology Information which is a government database. He specializes with Infection of diseases. Ki, Moran. "What Do We Really Fear? The Epidemiological Characteristics of Ebola and Our Preparedness." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 18 Aug. 2014. Web. 14 Nov. 2014. With the emergence of this huge Ebola outbreak, there are researchers across the world looking for a cure to this disease. One experimental drug, called ZMapp, was tested on multiple subjects and it is thought to work. When two American missionary workers fell ill to the Ebola virus they were offered to take this experimental drug and with no fail, it saved their lives. According to Wilson, Christensen and Dellorto's article, within an hour, his symptoms "dramatically improved." (Wilson, Christensen, and Dellorto, para. 1-2) This shows that the experimental drug is definitely the best hope out there. Although, this is not a vaccine for the disease, it could definitely help many people who are suffering through it. In a way Ebola is like cancer. Cancer has many different strains which affect different parts of the body. For example, some strains cause breast cancer and others let's say brain cancer. In the same way, Ebola has different strains of the virus and some are worse than others. Even if there were a cure to the drug, it would not fully cover all the strains of the virus. Included in their article about the experimental drug are many questions posing where it comes from, if it actually works and if there is going to be production of the drug. In the article, the authors state that the drug was founded by the biotech firm Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc. in San Diego, who work to "[focus] on unmet needs in global health and biodefence." They have been working on this treatment for multiple years in order to protect our people against "weapons of mass destruction." (Wilson, Christensen, and Dellorto, para. 4) This seems over the top, but I believe that it is possible this virus could spread worldwide. It would not be so hard to export tons of infected food worldwide. Especially in our global market, we import and export food all the time. If it were to happen, it would be a matter of weeks before thousands more would be infected. So, how do we know that this experimental drug actually works. At first, when the drug was used on the two missionaries, the doctors had no clue if it would work. Before, the drug had been tested on eight monkeys, but the immune system can react differently in primates such as monkeys. In any case, a human test would need to be done to see if it actually worked. In the end it proved to work on the two missionaries, so it will be used on more people for further testing. (Wilson, Christensen, and Dellorto, para. 16-17) It is really risky that we cannot figure out whether or not the drug actually works on people until it is actually tested. They could have extreme allergic reactions or it could go just fine, which is the case with this drug, but how does it actually work? The drug uses antibodies to help the immune system "mark and destroy foreign, or harmful, cells." (Wilson, Christensen, and Dellorto, para. 10) Previously, the antibodies were collected from mice who were given trace amounts of the virus. According the the article, now the drug can be produced with the proteins made from tobacco plants. They are now working on places in the United States where this drug can be manufactured in mass. (Wilson, Christensen, and Dellorto, para. 12) This is great to hear that there is an alternative way to manufacture the drug that does not involve harming animals. Also, since tobacco is a plant, it will be able to grow much faster than mice and could produce the antibodies in huge quantities. It is stated in the article that the manufacture of this experimental drug is a company called Kentucky BioProcessing. (Wilson, Christensen, and Dellorto, para. 12) We are creating the drugs in the United States, but will these drugs be kept for use in the country or will it be sent out to places in need such as West Africa. Hopefully, the drug will be sent out overseas to these countries to help fight off the disease. This article is very much like my one about blood transfusions. Both are about the treatment of Ebola patients. I would have to say that the ZMapp drug would be more effective. Both use antibodies to help the body fight off the disease, but blood transfusion is more risky. There is more room for infection and the spread of disease when dealing with blood. What I found interesting about the ZMapp drug, is that it can be synthesized using the proteins of tobacco plants, so there would be no risk of spreading disease or infection if it actually works. As far as we know, it seems to work, but there needs to be more testing done. One thing that we do not have to worry about is having a shortage of the drug because it can easily be synthesized through the use of tobacco plants. This is so much better than blood transfusions, which has a possibility of spreading other diseases and we are skeptical that it works. On top of all that, people who donate need to have survived the Ebola virus and need to match the blood type of the recipient. Using tobacco plants to produce these antibodies, we do not have to worry about any of this. Working for CNN, all three authors are experienced writers and producers for the CNN's health section. They all share similar interests in health and medical technology. Having these interest, we can say they are 'familiar' with the subject, but this does not necessarily mean they are credible. They are only writers and can we really trust what they say. Well, I have checked with other online sources and the information seems to match, but be careful out there. Some writings may be biased and hold incorrect information. Wilson, Jacque, Jen Christensen, and Danielle Dellorto. "9 Questions about This New Ebola Drug." CNN. Cable News Network, 05 Aug. 2014. Web. 12 Nov. 2014. There really is no proven way to help cure fight the Ebola virus, but there are a few methods including the experimental ZMapp drug, and blood transfusions. I will talk about the ZMapp drug in a separate blog, but for now I want to take a focus on blood transfusions. In an article by Steven Johnson, it is suggested that blood transfusions could be used to help cure Ebola patients. The process requires that Ebola survivors donate blood, so it can be transfused into patients that are currently suffering Ebola. After surviving Ebola, your body develops antibodies to the disease and in theory when their blood is transfused to an active patient, it helps them to fight Ebola. This also allows the body to build up it's immune system against the disease or at least that particular strain of Ebola. (Johnson, para. 5) Sadly, this is just an "unproven therapy," as Johnson describes it. (Johnson, para. 1) There is no proof that this method actually works or helps to fight against the disease, but according to Johnson's article, The European Commission has announced that it will be funding a study to determine whether or not this method of treatment is actually effective. There is still a strong belief that this method actually works when seven of eight patients who were given blood transfusions survived. (Johnson, para. 7) With those results, I think that it clearly shows that this is a great method of treatment! There are, unfortunately, many problems that occur with this method of treatment. Here in the United States, this method of treatment would not be very successful. Johnson gives his point that if "the nation sees a sudden uptick in the number of Ebola cases," then there would not be enough people to donate blood in large supply. (Johnson, para. 4) Only but a handful of people have survived the Ebola virus here in the United States. They alone could not supply a vast amount of people if there were to be an outbreak in the United States. Unlike in the places of Africa, there are more than enough people who have survived the disease that would be willing to donate their blood, but of course this cannot go without it's own problems. Many parts of Africa do not have the resources to provide that kind of treatment to thousands of patients. Not only that, but it could also "increase the risk of other infections such as hepatitis and HIV if [the] blood is not properly tested." (Johnson, para. 5) This is really a bad situation because either way there is no way to properly use this method. Here in the United States, we would not have the supply of blood for all the transfusions needed if there were an outbreak and in Africa there are not enough resources. I think that this would be a great method to help treat the patients, but I have to agree with the article; these countries do not have the resources. Even if they did have the resources, the risk for other disease would be very high if the blood is not tested correctly. Not only this, but the blood has to be very particular. You would not be able to give someone type A blood when they are O. Perhaps in the future, we can find out whether or not this method actually helps and find out why, so that we could possibly create a medicine of some sort. This blog compares to my other ones such as the one because everyone with Ebola needs to have intensive care and isolation. Usually, in the United States they are taken away to an isolated hospital where they are cared for weeks until they are finally cured. Did these patients have blood transfusions? They probably did not unless they were imported from a different country. It is not a disease that anyone wants to transmit, but it can easily be prevented. Steven Ross Johnson is part of the reporting staff at Modern Healthcare. He joined them in 2013 and covers public health. He has also been a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune, Progress Illinois, the Chicago Reporter and the Times of Northwest Indiana. He has also been a government affairs reporter for the Courier-News. He graduated from Columbia College in Chicago with a bachelors in Communication and from Northwestern University with a master's degree in journalism. Johnson is a credible author because he has had many years of experience in writing and he specializes in public health. Johnson, Steven R. "Can Transfusions Aid Ebola Fight?" Modern Healthcare. N.p., 1 Nov. 2014. Web. 13 Nov. 2014. The Ebola virus is horrific enough just thinking about it, let alone looking at pictures of Ebola patients. It makes me cringe to see people laying on their death beds suffering. Hopefully, we will never know what it is like to live through this disease. In an article by Zoë Schlager, she interviews a man by the name of Dr. Senga Omeonga about his painful journey surviving Ebola. Dr. Omeonga, who is a surgeon in Liberia had contracted the disease after his boss walked into his office at St. Joseph Catholic Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. He had shaken hands with him not knowing he was already infected. Just days later, his boss started vomiting, had a headache and a very high fever. In fear, he got tested for Ebola, but the test came back negative, which was later proved to be a false negative. (Schlanger, para. 2) This means that the test gave back the wrong results. All the worries had been pushed aside until a week later, when his symptoms worsened. This is when he got tested again, this time being positive. Everyone who had come in contact with his director would have a high chance of having Ebola. The hospital had become a complete disaster and had to be quarantined. It was on the day of August 2nd when his director died of the disease and when Omeonga began to feel sick. (Schlanger, para. 2) This is one thing that can be very scary because as I have said in the last post, it takes a while before symptoms start to appear. Really, there is no way of telling that you have Ebola unless you know you have come in contact with it in the past. Five weeks after Omeonga had been declared Ebola-free, he spoke on the phone with Newsweek to share his story. Thinking about what it would be like to have an infectious disease is unfeasible. There is no way of telling what it is like to have it unless you have actually experienced it before. It's just like trying to describe what it feels like to be shot by a gun, but you have never been shot before. The pain is probably much more than you would think. Omeonga claims in his interview to have always been a very healthy person and that this was his first experience having a sickness like this. Omeonga says that Ebola makes it so "you can't do anything." Your body is completely fatigued leaving you completely helpless. With all the vomiting, headaches and having a high fever, someone needs to be around to care for you at all times. (Omeonga, para. 5) There probably are no words to describe the pain of this disease. One thing I wish he would have described is how the flu compares to the Ebola virus The flu is also a very deadly virus when not treated and it comes with much fatigue. How much worse can a disease become? Although, Ebola is less of a threat to the world than the flu, it is still a much more painful disease. So, what was it like for Omeonga during his treatment? Omeonga was treated along with his colleagues, who each had the same symptoms as him. They all had to wait long periods of time before they could be transported to a ETU or Ebola treatment unit. The only people they would take unto the ETU's were the ones who were the most sick. Even Omeonga, who was a health care worker had to wait a week just to get a bed in there. (Schlanger, para. 7) This is one of the things I have discussed in a prior entry of mine. The hospitals of these countries have limited space to take care of all these Ebola patients. They are overrun with all the people during this epidemic making it so they can only take in the people in the most critical condition. In my opinion, you should take in the people who are in a less critical condition because they have a high chance of survival than the ones who are already in the "Cytokine Storm." Anyway, during his time in the ETU, he was given an experimental drug called ZMapp. This drug helped him a lot during his time and he became stable. Omeonga said that "ZMapp may have speeded [his] healing. (Schlanger, para. 9) If I were in his situation, I would have taken any kind of drug they gave me they though would help. This disease if very fatal with a high mortality rate. Take any chances you can in order to save yourself from death. A month after his cure, he is still very weak, but he says he is gaining strength everyday. Still, he has a lot of joint pain, but he is healing everyday. (Schlanger, para. 13) It is really scary to think that after you are cured from the disease it has literally destroyed your entire body. You are very weak and will need months if not years of recovery if possible. This blog closely relates with most of the blogs I have written so far. In a previous blog I discovered that the hospitals in these areas do not have enough ETU's or beds to handle all these Ebola patients. This was what Omeonga's problem was. He had to wait over a week of suffering before he could get a bed and start to recover. They usually take in health care workers first, and being a surgeon, they should have taken him in first. Surgeons are not all that common and losing someone like that would be a tragedy. This interview with Dr. Omeonga was conducted by Zoë Schlanger, who is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. She is interested in the intersection of health and environment. She was previously the front page editor at Talking Points Memo, and has written at The Nation, Gothamist, Guernica and BuzzFeed. Schlanger, Zoë. "How It Feels to Have Ebola: ‘It’s Like Your Body Doesn't Belong to You Anymore’." Newsweek. Newsweek, 6 Oct. 2014. Web. 12 Nov. 2014. In my blog, I have discussed many things concerning Ebola. I have talked about how it spreads around the world, how it affects these places and how this outbreak started an online "epidemic," but I have yet to talk about what Ebola actually does to the patient. First, we must look at where Ebola originated from. According to an article by Lecia Bushak we still do not know the origins of this virus. Scientist believe that the virus came from infected animals when hunters gathered what they call "bushmeat." These meats consist of "dead dogs, pigs, or bats," which she says are made into various soups. (Bushak, para. 4) If this is the case, then it might as well not be safe to eat any sort of animal. All animals were wild at one point, but some are now domesticated such as cows and chickens. We eat these meats on a daily basis and we do not see many illnesses come about from those except when we cook them wrong. Bushak says in her article "if an infected animal isn't cooked properly," that is when the person gets the disease. (Bushak, para. 4) So, the problem might not be the type of animals these people ate, but how they cooked them. Improper cooking of meat can cause many illnesses. For example, if we were to under cook a chicken breast, there would be a very high chance of getting salmonella. Same goes for the Ebola virus, but what animal is a natural carrier of the virus? Scientist believe that bats in the rain forest regions of Africa can carry the disease without being affected by it. (Bushak, para. 4) If the people in these regions have been collecting "bushmeat" for years, why has this disease only recently been discovered? This only poses the question whether or not this disease had been around before it's discovery. Perhaps, in the near future, we will know more about it's exact origin as we continue research on the disease. Perhaps now we should look into what the disease actually does to the human body. After a person has been infected symptoms start to appear between two and twenty-one days. Some of the symptoms Bushak lists in her article are a headache, lack of appetite, a sore throat and fever. (Bushak, para. 7) Basically, in the beginning stages of this disease it is just like the common cold. It is hard to tell whether a person has the disease or not. When winter comes around most people get a mild cold, so if someone were to have the disease they would blend in perfectly until a couple more days have passed. Just like HIV, the Ebola virus attacks the immune system and destroys the T-lymphocyte cells. (Bushak, para. 7) The major difference between Ebola and HIV is that Ebola attacks in a more viscous way. Where HIV takes years to develop, Ebola on needs a couple weeks before it shuts down the immune system. If I remember from my 10th grade biology class, HIV is a very difficult disease to deal with because it mimics the shape of a sugar. This allows it to gain entry into host cells where it will suck the life out of it and then replicate itself. I'm assuming this is what happens with Ebola as well. After a day or so, the infected person will "begin to ache all over; they will begin vomiting and experiencing diarrhea." (Bushak, para. 7) This leaves the person in critical condition and they will be very contagious. With all the fluids that are coming out of the person, it is not hard to spread the disease to others around you. It is actually scary if you have to take care of a person with Ebola. As I have seen before in documentaries about the disease, nobody wants to take care of an infected person. They would leave the person in a room until they died, so they would be gathered by officials. We haven't even got to discuss the final stage of this disease. This one is the most fatal and it basically decides whether or not you are going to survive. This stage, Bushak describes is the "worst," but is that word has little to no meaning. If I were to describe the last stage I would use the word unfortunate. No, I lied, it is the most detrimental of the stages. This stage is described commonly as the "Cytokine Storm," and this is where the immune system starts turning on itself. At this point the immune system starts attacking every organ of your body, which causes the bursting of blood vessels and making the person bleed internally and externally. (Bushak, para. 8) This is why Ebola is also commonly known as the hemorrhagic fever because you are really bleeding to death at your bodies fault. Not that it cannot help itself, but at this point your body is very weak. Blood starts to pour out through your eyes, vomit and diarrhea. (Bushak, para. 8) This causes me to cringe just thinking about this, but it is reality and thousands of people are dealing with this disease at this moment. Without a cure to this disease medics can only provide so much help to the people. There are a few treatments that Bushak has described in her article, one being oral hydration. This is where they flush the body with clean water in attempt to re-hydrate the patient as they do get extremely dehydrated with the diarrhea. Another treatment which she says shows positive results is blood transfusions. They take the blood of an Ebola survivor and add antibodies in hope it will help to fight off the disease. (Bushak, para. 11) The second treatment method does not make much sense to me. Although they are filling the blood with antibodies, how will this help the patient fight of the disease. Ebola is a virus, so antibiotics would not help very much. The only thing that helps is time and care. Even after a person has been cured of the disease, they are still infectious up to 40 days. (Bushak, para. 12) That is a scary thought because even though you might feel better you are still contagious, so you would need to be isolated from everyone. Lecia Bushak, is a reporter who covers mental health and international news for many publishers. She graduated from New York University with a double major in Journalism and Studio Art. Recently, she has begun to write various articles about Ebola, so she is very knowledgeable about this topic. This is why she is a credible author. Bushak, Lecia. "This Is What The Ebola Virus Does To Your Body." Medical Daily. N.p., 07 Aug. 2014. Web. 11 Nov. 2014. As the world is in concern over the recent Ebola outbreak, people all over are searching the internet for information about it. In Nicole Perlroth's article, she raises her concern about the rise of Ebola themed emails that have been sent out anonymously to target host computers. It's not uncommon for hackers to take advantage of events in order to take over these computer, but this epidemic is much larger than any other. These cyber-criminals are able to take advantage of the many people who are worried about this virus and infect their computers. In order for people to believe their emails, they say it is from an important organization such as the World Health Organization. Then, once the host opens the email it offers safety tips for preventing Ebola. Once the user has downloads the "safety tips," that is when the host becomes infected with the virus. Perlroth has stated the virus can "grab shots off the victim's webcam, record sounds from their computer's microphone, take control of their desktop remotely, modify and upload files and steal passwords." (Perlroth, 3) That is a lot to handle for any one virus and a very scary one at the least. In another article from an unknown author, he describes how people have become more aware of cyber attacks. This is why cyber-criminals have started using email as a way of sending phishing emails that have a heading with the most "trending" topics. They specifically design these emails to look as if they were from a professional organization such as the WHO or even CNN. (Tech2 News Staff, 2) The author also published an image (shown below) of one of the emails that attempted to infect a computer. With all of that being said, all I can say is "Wow!" Personally, I am impressed with how these people are able to get people to click their links. I usually never open up any sort of file unless I know it is from a trusted person or website. Usually, big organizations such as the WHO or any government systems do not send emails to anyone, but their workers. I say if you are not part of the organization and you are receiving emails from these people, how can you expect them to be legitimate. One big question that gets me is how they obtained your email address in the first place? They must have a random generator that randomizes emails and sends the same email over again or maybe they just hacked into a database with thousands of emails to different people. If this is true, it is scary how an average person can get into these pools of data where all your personal information is stored. They can find out where you live, your phone number or even your bank account numbers. In my conclusion, these emails are a very high risk for people who are not careful when opening and downloading files, but they can easily be prevented if can tell if it is fake. This post doesn't necessarily relate to my previous posts. The issue of this online epidemic is it's own problem that just happened to be started by this recent Ebola outbreak. The major difference is that this online virus can spread way faster and further than the real thing. Nicole Perlroth is a credible source because she specifically writes about technology for The New York Times. She is mainly interested in covering cyber security and privacy, so she has experience in this field of technology. She is also a graduate of Princeton University and Stanford University's Graduate School of Journalism. Perlroth, Nicole. "Malicious Ebola-Themed Emails Are on the Rise." The New York Times. Bits, 24 Oct. 2014. Web. 9 Nov. 2014. Tech2 News Staff. "Ebola Virus Being Used as Bait to Spread Malware: Symantec." Firstpost. TECH2, 19 Aug. 2014. Web. 10 Nov. 2014. Tiaji Salaam-Blyther, a specialist in global health, has written a very detailed article on how the recent Ebola outbreak affects many of these countries. At first she describes some key points that distinguishes this outbreak from the previous ones. One particular point she made referenced the location in which it began. It was quite odd to see that the current outbreak started in a notably different region from the previous outbreaks. Salaam-Blyther states that the other outbreaks were "concentrated in the DRC [Dominican Republic of the Congo], Gabon, Sudan...," which is mainly central Africa. (Salaam-Blyther, para. 2) This shows that the disease is a potential hazard in our global society and it can move quickly across the globe. It is scary to see that such an infectious disease can rapidly spawn into an area and infect thousands of people. Not only has it begun to spread to other countries, it has found it's way into the cities of these countries. Salaam-Blyther states in her article that in the past the virus was "confined to rural areas and forested areas," but now it is spreading to urban settings. (Salaam-Blyther, para. 2) The cities are the best places for viruses to spread because there are so many people that could potentially be infected. This is a difficult situation because people are always coming in contact with one another in these large societies. This is especially true in African culture, where touching one another is a huge factor. The disease is spreading rapidly through the biggest ports along the Western African coast, which is causing thousands of people to become infected. Salaam-Blyther states in her article that some cases are "doubling every 15-20 days.. [others] every 30-40 days." (Salaam-Blyther, para. 2) Which is terrible in these countries where the health care system is not a huge help. The United States has also been doing a great deal to improve things overseas. Besides the fact that we have had our own case in our country, it was much easier for us to isolate the disease because we are so developed. In the article Salaam-Blyther reveals that many organizations have been contributing to the aid overseas such as the Overseas Humanitarian Disaster and Civic Aid (OHDACA), who was funded $750 million from the Department of Defense in order to build 17 Ebola treatment units. On top of that, Congress has provided $88 million which distributes to $30 million for "response activities" and $58 million for research. This I believe will greatly help the health care system in these countries which were already weak before the Ebola outbreak. There are a number of problems that are a cause to this outbreak one being that these countries cannot compensate for their own health workers. Many of the workers, Salaam-Blyther insists, are not getting their benefits and are experiencing delays receiving their pay. Some of the workers, she says, have even left their jobs due to the increasing safety concerns and lack of proper equipment. (Salaam-Blyther, para. 5) I do not blame them for leaving their jobs. They are having to deal with life threatening diseases without protective gear to prevent themselves from getting it. If we look at the nurse in Texas who had been diagnosed with Ebola after treating a man while wearing the protective gear, we can see how easily this disease can be transmitted. It is not a safe environment for these workers and they deserve to be paid very high. As a result of these workers leaving their jobs, there have been shortages of these people who are so desperately needed. This has left many people who are infected without aid. Salaam-Blyther said in her article that, "health centers are prompting people to care for the ill on their own, " which will further spread the virus. (Salaam-Blyther, para. 6) No one with the right experience will know how to handle people with this disease, which is why the disease will only continue to spread. With the shortages of workers, some facilities have even closed their doors making it even harder to find aid. Many of the people seeking aid travel far distances to receive care only to be turned down to the waiting room until their case is severe. (Salaam-Blyther, para. 9) This is not the way to take care of patients who are in need of care. Putting these patients in the waiting room with other's who do not have the disease will only worsen the problem and cause it to spread more. These countries I believe need to restructure their health care system and find better ways to isolate these patients from the others. On top of that, safe disposal of the infected bodies also needs to be taken care of carefully. Salaam-Blyther suggests that the disposal of the bodies was also improving in these countries where "90% of [the] dead bodies are being removed with 24 hours." This could help slow the spread of the disease, but it is hard to do so when people of these areas often kiss their dead relatives before they are buried. (Salaam-Blyther, para. 9) I believe that this is a difficult situation to deal with because this is how they show their respect to their dead relatives. They would have to somehow spread the word that this is how the disease will spread and how the bodies are most infectious when they are dead. Hopefully the increasing efforts in these overseas countries will continue to better themselves. Comparing to my previous post, this article also shows how the virus is spreading rapidly through major cities along the coast. Shipping docks provide a way for the virus to enter in and spread throughout. Also, they both talk about how the health care system in these African countries are not developed enough to be able to control this virus. The author of this article, Tiaji Salaam-Blyther is a very credible source. Coming from the World Health Organization, she has a ton of experience on the past of this disease, so she is able to talk about it in a knowledgeable way. She currently works in the Library of Congress as part of the Congressional Research Service. This organization works for the US Congress to provide them with the "nation's best thinking." Salaam-Blyther, Tiaji. "U.S. and International Health Responses to the Ebola Outbreak in West Africa." U.S. and International Health Responses to the Ebola Outbreak in West Africa (2014): 1-25. Federation of American Scientists. Web. 2 Nov. 2014. Health threats pass through our borders into the United States everyday through shipping ports and airports, says Kurt Eichenwald in his article, "Fear Infectious Disease, But Not Ebola." (Eichenwald, para. 1) In his article Eichenwald suggests that the United States has ignored the deaths of those who have died of Ebola in the sub-Saharan countries of Africa and that is the reason nothing has been done to stop it. He also continues on to say that this Ebola outbreak in the United States has led to a "political beanbag" between multiply parties of congress. (Eichenwald, para. 20) Instead of finding a solution for the disease, we are rambling on about who to blame for this, and of course, this is not going to contribute anything to the situation. This is Eichenwald's primary concern over this whole ordeal. He suggests that more people will die from automobile accidents while reading his article than those who will die from Ebola. Later in his article, he goes on about how some people feel that the United States should close its borders to prevent the spread of disease. He then asks how we can close our borders for a disease that has killed not but one since the article was written, but convince other countries to keep their borders open to us when disease from our country have caused tens of thousands of deaths in the past. (Eichenwald, para. 8) He concludes that shutting the borders to these developing nations would cause an economic crisis as we depend on one another so heavily. (Eichenwald, para. 6) Instead of wasting our time arguing about the disease, time needs to be made to plan out solutions instead of blaming people such as the President. Nature is the biggest threat and we need to be ready for when it hits. (Eichenwald, para. 15-19)
This article comes from a news post called Newsweek, which has been known to create reliable information. The author of the article as mentioned above is Kurt Eichenwald who is a very experience journalist and writer. He has worked previously for twenty years for the New York Times as an experienced journalist, columnist and senior writer. Eichenwald has won the George Polk Award for excellence in journalism twice in his career. On top of all this fame he also was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2000 and 2002, which recognizes achievement in literature, journalism and music. Last of all, he wrote a book called The Informant, which was nominated as one of the best nonfiction books of the decade. Knowing this, we can conclude that his work is very credible. As far as being credible to talk about the subject, he is not a doctor or any other type of expert in the field, but he has a lot to say about how there is no simple solution to this epidemic. In a couples points throughout his article, remarks are made about how Republicans are wasting their time using this epidemic as a political rant on how Obama is not doing his job. This could be true, but I feel as if he did not need to mention these parts in his article. The rest of the article seems to be non-biased. This article provided much information on how Ebola is not something that we should be afraid of currently. That people need to create a solution on how to fix all this instead of ranting on about irrational solutions. Being a current epidemic provides with the most current articles such as this one. These are usually the most reliable sources because they will not provide you with outdated information. It is true in our world, that it is not possible to stop the spread of the disease. Health threats come through our shipping ports and airports every day, but is there any way that we could be able to stop this? Should we check every person as they enter our country or check every load of cargo that enters our country? No, I do not believe that would be possible. Not only would it be very time consuming, but it would just cost so much money and really, it would be very unrealistic. There really isn't a way to stop a disease such as Ebola from coming to the United States unless it has been identified and isolated in another place. This cannot very easily be done in these African countries where the disease originated because their health care system is still developing as their countries are. One thing mentioned in Eichenwald's article that surprised me is that the CDC requested $7.5 million to establish national public health institutes in developing nations such as those in Africa, but it was zeroed out. He also included that really, all they needed was what one American CEO would make in a year, which is close to $1 million. (Eichenwald, para. 13) Just a small amount of money (in organizational terms) was zeroed out to no funding for a project, that could have helped these developing countries learn more about diseases and help advance their healthcare system. Another thing that surprised me was that military plays a large role in response to possible pandemics. (Eichenwald, para. 16) It seems odd to me that we would send our own people overseas to fight disease. What role does our military take place when we are helping them? That is another thing that I am going to have to look into. If our military cannot fight it off, it's probably too strong. That's probably an overstatement, but in all seriousness, this disease needs to be stopped as we do not need thousands dying in our modern age. One new perspective Eichenwald gave me is how other countries would react if we closed our borders. Eichenwald suggests that if we close our borders to protect ourselves, how can we convince other countries to leave their borders open for us when diseases that originated from the United States have killed hundreds of thousands? (Eichenwald, para. 8) Ebola has killed but one person so far in our country, and we are freaking out about how it's going to become a huge epidemic. When we look on the logical side of things there are other diseases such as the flu which are more easily transmissible than the Ebola virus. Some people's ideas of closing our borders for one death is a ridiculous thing to do. I'm not quite sure how other counties would react to that, but I would hope that we are smarter than to close our borders, unless some ridiculous super disease breaks out. All in all, I do believe that we need to focus on creating a solution for the disease instead of rambling on about where our problem began. We are past that and we need to look into the future of this problem. EICHENWALD, KURT. "Fear Infectious Disease, But Not Ebola." Newsweek Global 163.17 (2014): 22-24. Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 Oct. 2014. |