Posted by
Akinola Olusegun
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Posted by
Akinola Olusegun
on
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- Other Apps
In 2014 an outbreak
of the hemorrhagic Ebola virus swept across six African countries and
killed more than 11,300 people. Tom Frieden, the former director of the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called the outbreak “the world’s first Ebola epidemic” that was “spiraling out of control.”
One of the fears at the time was that someone who was unknowingly affected with the disease would board an airplane and the virus would spread globally. And that fear became a reality with Thomas Eric Duncan of Liberia was visiting with family in Texas and was diagnosed with Ebola. He died from the illness, but not before the virus spread to two nurses who treated him at the hospital. Both nurses survived.
Craig Spencer, a physician with the organization Doctors Without Borders, returned to New York after treating Ebola patients in the country of Guinea and learned he had contracted the virus. Spencer survived but his case caused significant panic because he had visited numerous public areas across New York before he was diagnosed.
Those Ebola cases, as well as cases of other significantly lethal viral outbreaks that have occurred since, have spurred researchers to focus on the development of antivirals that can treat the illnesses. Companies are working to develop vaccines for the likes of the mosquito-borne Zika virus, MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) and, of course, Ebola.
FOR FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE
One of the fears at the time was that someone who was unknowingly affected with the disease would board an airplane and the virus would spread globally. And that fear became a reality with Thomas Eric Duncan of Liberia was visiting with family in Texas and was diagnosed with Ebola. He died from the illness, but not before the virus spread to two nurses who treated him at the hospital. Both nurses survived.
Craig Spencer, a physician with the organization Doctors Without Borders, returned to New York after treating Ebola patients in the country of Guinea and learned he had contracted the virus. Spencer survived but his case caused significant panic because he had visited numerous public areas across New York before he was diagnosed.
Those Ebola cases, as well as cases of other significantly lethal viral outbreaks that have occurred since, have spurred researchers to focus on the development of antivirals that can treat the illnesses. Companies are working to develop vaccines for the likes of the mosquito-borne Zika virus, MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) and, of course, Ebola.
FOR FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE
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