Dan Liljenquist
For the Deseret News
The Ebola virus has launched humanity into uncharted waters. While plagues have raged throughout history, our modern, interconnected world magnifies the stakes associated with each viral outbreak.
On Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) advised the United Nations Security Council that if Ebola is not contained in the next 60 days, the world faces an 'unprecedented' situation for which there is no plan. Within two months, the WHO anticipates the Ebola virus could infect as many as 10,000 individuals each week.
To contain the outbreak, which has infected more than 9,000 this year and kills more than two-thirds of those infected, the WHO says that 70 percent of infected people need to be in care facilities and 70 percent of burials must be carried out without further infection to get on top of the epidemic. The health care resources of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea - where 95 percent of the infections are concentrated - are woefully inadequate. The international community must move quickly and spare no expense in containing what WHO Director-General Margaret Chan characterizes as 'the most severe, acute health emergency seen in modern times.' If we fail, the Ebola virus' exponential growth rate could, barring a miracle cure, reach an unstoppable velocity as early as January 2015.
While there have been several Ebola outbreaks over the years, this outbreak has surpassed all other outbreaks combined. Researchers believe they have tracked the origin of this epidemic to a 2-year-old boy from rural Guinea who died in December 2013. His mother, grandmother and sister contracted the disease, spreading it to others as they died. The virus then leapt from village to village, crossing borders into neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone. Nurses and doctors who rushed in to help the sick became infected themselves, decimating an already fragile health care workforce. Health care workers account for around 10 percent of the Ebola-related deaths.
Gratefully, Ebola, unlike virulent strains of influenza, is not airborne (otherwise it would already be unstoppable). The Ebola virus is spread from human to human only by direct contact with an infected person's blood or bodily fluids. When the disease is properly identified, well-trained and equipped health care professionals can isolate and treat Ebola victims without facilitating its transmission. Multiple Ebola cases have been treated in U.S. hospitals over the last several weeks. Of the hundreds of health care workers who have come in close contact with Ebola patients in U.S. hospitals, only two have contracted the virus so far (most likely because of hazmat suit issues).
The key to preventing the spread of Ebola is to identify and isolate victims before they have the chance to spread the virus to others. The challenge is that people suffering from Ebola initially exhibit flu-like symptoms, including fevers, sore throats, general weakness and muscle pain. While these symptoms progress to diarrhea, vomiting and internal and external bleeding, early symptoms of Ebola are indistinguishable from myriad other less severe ailments that present in U.S. emergency departments each day, including the flu. To identify potential Ebola patients, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is training U.S. health care professionals to flag and isolate patients exhibiting flu-like symptoms who have recently traveled to Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea.
If Ebola breaks out of Western Africa and takes root in other countries, our ability to pre-screen for potential Ebola cases will be seriously compromised. Hospitals do not have the resources or the space to isolate every individual who presents with flu-like symptoms. Keeping the epidemic contained to Africa is critical to our emergency response to Ebola.
The Ebola virus has launched humanity into uncharted waters. While plagues have raged throughout history, our modern, interconnected world magnifies the stakes associated with each viral outbreak. We must not hesitate to do all that is required to arrest this Ebola epidemic.
Dan Liljenquist is a former state senator and former U.S. Senate candidate.
