Hot Topics Brief (Coursework Sample)

Hot Topics Brief (Ebola)
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Hot Topics Brief (Ebola) Ebola is a viral hemorrhagic infection caused by any of the five species of the Ebola virus. The public health consequences of the disease in the year 2014, are widespread across the whole world but with the West African countries experiencing the heaviest burden of this disease (Fisman et al., 2014). According to the New York Times in an article titled U.N. Leader Plans Stronger Presence in Ebola zone (/2014/09/18/world/africa/ebola-world-bank-west-africa-economy.html?ref=health&_r=0) the disease needs coordinated world efforts for it to be controlled successfully. Countries across the globe need to mobilize resources to curb the rate of the disease spread. Various factors that influence Ebola problem at different ecological levels will be outlined in the paper.
Intrapersonal Factor
It has been on the record that a great proportion of the West African rural communities, who have never been infected with the virus, have antibodies to the infection in their blood. 15.3% of the members of the rural communities in Gabon – areas with no history of Ebola outbreak - were found to have the antibodies (Nkoghe et al., 2011). Howeve, the synthetic vaccination is non-existent. There has never been a successful development of Ebola virus vaccine and therefore the greatest proportion of people at risk of developing the disease remain highly vulnerable because their immune systems cannot be artificially induced (Banton et al., 2010.
Interpersonal Factor
Ebola is greatly contagious and can be transmitted through various body fluids. Cross transmission among individuals happens when an exchange of body fluids between individuals takes place. Most cross transmissions among different individuals take place during normal behaviors involving physical contact (Roels et al., 1999). The second interpersonal factor that influences Ebola is Healthcare practice. It has been observed that health care practitioners involved in the control of the disease are in a very increased risk of contracting the disease (Gatherer, 2014).
Organizational Factor
The most significant organizational factor that influences the research on the virus is the insufficient number of the experienced virologists. The filoviridae group of viruses suffers a shortage of public health virologists (particularly in Africa) who can provide an immediate solution to the problem (Green, 2014). Additionally, governments in countries neighboring the Ebola prone region have erected travel barriers across their borders. These restrictions have significantly reduced the accessibility in those regions affecting the availability of the basic supplies (Grolla et al., 2012).
Community Factors
Members of the hunting communities, particularly in the West African region, are more susceptible to the disease because of their food gathering practices. Some of the meat sources hunted by these communities serve as the natural hosts of the filoviridae group of viruses. These natural hosts influenced the localization of some of the major Ebola outbreaks in the history (LeBreton et al., 2006). The research and the zoologist communities, on the other hand, have had contributions in some Ebola incidents. It is recorded that about four incidents of Ebola-Reston virus infection in the US were caused by imported monkeys in the year 1990. Some quarantined facilities have also been implicated as the source of the 1990 Reston-Ebola incidents though death was not reported (Francesconi et al., 2003).
Societal Factors
At the societal level, the extended family plans that exist in the African settings favors the interpersonal transmissions. A single infected individual in this setting can result in an extended range of cross-transmission leading to the affliction of a great number of the members of the family. The high contagious nature of this disease increases the risk among the members of the family of the afflicted (Dowell et al., 1990). Lastly, societal ignorance also influences the distribution of the disease. Outbreaks in the third world countries where most people do not know the basic preventive measures tend to kill more people as compared to such outbreaks in the developed world. In Guinea, for example, hazardous burial practices which can contribute to immergence of new cases are still widely practiced (Gulland, 2014).
Conclusion
Some members of the West African communities show antibodies to Ebola despite the lack of artificial vaccines to the disease. These individuals, consequently, cannot contract Ebola through the conventional interpersonal physical contact – even without protective equipment. These antibodies have most likely developed from contact with natural Ebola harbors. The development of the antibodies may also have developed after contact with ailing or dead members of their extended families. A rise in the figure of the sick persons, also, may result from lack of sufficient numbers of researchers and impassability of the borders in the West Africa.