Question

1. Please explain and use articles (evidences) explaing the etiology/risk factors for ebola virus

2. Provide general interventions (both medical and nursing) for ebola

Answer 1

1) The Ebola virus is a member of the family filoviridae and the order mono negavirales and is the causative agent of Ebola Hemorrhagic fever.

• Ebola is severe and often fatal human and non human primates with mortality rates reaching as high as 90% in some out breaks.
• The Ebola out break that occured in 2014 to 2016 in West Africa was the largest out break of the disease the World Health Organisation reports.
• The ebola virus was originally discovered in 1976 in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Risk factor for Ebola virus :

The exact cause of EVD is unknown. Once infected, a person can spread virus to the other people.

• Travelers who have close contact with non human primates such as (monkeys, chimpanzees and gorillas) or bats in tropical Africa are at risk.
• People who care for people sick with Ebola are also at risk.
• At first, it feels much like a flu.People develop a fever and complain of headache, sore throat, muscle pain and weakness.
• Overall,eleven people were treated for Ebola in the United States during the 2014 - 2016 epidemic .
• On September 30, 2014 CDC confirmed the first travel associated case of EVD diagnosed in the United States in a man who travelled from West Africa to Dallas,Texas.The patient died on October 8, 2014.

2) General interventions for Ebola:

• The best way to avoid Ebola is to stay away from areas where the virus is common. Avoid infected people , their body fluids, and the bodies of anyone who has died from the disease.
• Providing fluids and electrolytes through infusion in to the vein.
• Offering Oxygen therapy to maintain Oxygen status.
• Using medication to support blood pressure, reduce vomiting and diarrhoea and to manage fever and pain.
• Treating other infections , if they occur.
• The U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Ebola vaccine rVSV-ZEBOV on December 19, 2019.The rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine is a single dose vaccine regimen that has been found to be safe and protective against only the Zaire ebola virus species of ebola virus.
• Drug such as Inmazeb is a mixture of 3 moncolonal antibodies (atoltivimab, maftivimab, and odesivimab-ebgn).

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