Ebola causes headaches, feelings of nausea and is very difficult to get rid of. Is it a virus or a free U2 album? Just a little humor on a serious issue facing our country on a daily basis. Ebola is a virus that causes an acute, serious illness which is often fatal if untreated. It appeared first in 1976 with two cases in Africa near the Ebola River where is first received its name (WHO). The outbreak that has recently occurred is the largest outbreak in African history since the previous Ebola outbreak of 1976. Ebola is transmitted from wild animals to human, and then from human to human contact. It is thought that the virus comes from fruit bats. Ebola is passed through humans by blood, secretions, organs, or other bodily fluids. 9,000 people in Africa have died from this deadly virus, with 18,000 cases actively being assessed and about 12,000 dead or dying, and it is slowly finding its way into the United States (Gallinger). This is happening because doctors and nurses and people who are in Africa are coming to the U.S. and bringing it with them because they don't know they have it because it takes up to three weeks for the symptoms to take over in the body and the virus to start affecting a person. There have been many illnesses in history that have turned into worldwide epidemics. Many people have died from things that have made them sick that have been contracted by other human beings. Will Ebola turn into a worldwide epidemic? Is America ready for an epidemic? Are the American people today ready for an epidemic should Ebola turn into that? Without any current licensed Ebola vaccines how will we be able to take care of the cases if it should become an outbreak? .
The Center for Disease Control has raised warnings against traveling to the region that has been majorly affected by the virus to try to avoid the spread and contact of the illness. There have only been two other times that the CDC has raised their traveling warnings.
