Overview of Ebola

Overview of Ebola Ebola virus is a deadly virus which cause disease in humans and nonhuman primates for instance monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees. Infection caused by the Ebola virus strains is known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever or Ebola. Virus which cause Ebola infection belong to familyFiloviridae, genusEbolavirus. Five species of Ebola virus are identified. Among these five species,four cause disease in humans which are: Ebola virus Sudan virus Taà ¯ Forest virus Bundibugyo virus Reston virus is the fifth specie and is known to cause disease in nonhuman primates and not in humans. History: Ebola virus disease first emerged in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks, first one in Nzara, Sudan, and second one in Yambuku few months later. Later a case was reported in a village located near a river named as Ebola River. The disease is named after that river.The first attack of Ebola in Sudan affected about 284 people with mortality rate of approx. 53%.The second Ebola virus appeared from Yambuku(EBOZ) has mortality rate of 88% and affected 318 people. Use of contaminated syringes and needles in clinics and hospitals and close personal contact with infected ones are considered as main cause of outbreak of disease. In 1989,the third strain of Ebola named as Ebola Reston (EBOR) was discovered in USA(Virginia and Pennsylvania) through imported infected monkeys into Virginia from Philippines.In 1990,once again EBOR was emerged in Virginia and Texas by imported monkeys but four people developed antibodies and remained safe. Later in 1994,the last strain of Ebola named as Ebola Cote dIvoire (EBO-CI) was discovered while conductance of a necropsy on a dead chimpanzee sighted in the Tai Forest by a female ethologist. One more case occurred in gold-mining camps located in the rain forest in the same year with mortality rate of 60%. Initially the disease was thought to be yellow fever and was identified as Ebola virus disease much later. In 1995, virus apperared in Kikwit with mortality rate of 81%.Later in 1996, ebola virus appeared in South Africa with mortality rate of 50% when medical professional travelled to South Africa from Gabon after treating Ebola-infected patients. He was admitted in hospita l and a nurse whose duty was to take care of doctor, also became infected and died. Another case occurred in Mayibout area with mortality rate of 57% when an infected chimpanzee was eaten by people hunting for food. In 2000,virus appeared in Masindi, Gulu, and districts of Uganda with mortality rate of 53%. In 2001 and 2002,disease emerged in the Republic of the Congo and over the border of Gabon and with mortality rate of 82% and was the first time that Ebola virus disease spread in the Republic of the Congo. In 2003, outbreak of infection appeared in Mbomo and Mbandza villages with mortality rate of 83%.In 2004,cases of disease were reported in Yambio county of southern Sudan accompanied with measles at the same time with mortality rate of 41%.Later in 2007, virus affected people in Kasai Occidental Province and Bundibugyo District in western Uganda with mortality rate of 71% and 25% respectively.In 2008,strains of Ebola-Reston were discovered in pigs.In 2011, a patient died in th e Luwero district, Uganda due to Ebola Hemorrhagic fever as diagnosed by The Uganda Ministry of Health.In 2012,a viral attack was reported in the Kibaale District of Uganda. In 2013, disease emerged in the Luwero District.Samples were tested by CDCs Viral Special Pathogens.Recently in 2014,infection was reported in several villages located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in months of august to November with mortality rate of 74%.In March, virus attacked multiple countries in West Africa. Worldwide occurance: Ebola is a rare disease and has spread in Guinea,Sierra Leone and Liberia. Severely affected countries by Eboal a-included Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia due to weak health systems,shortfall of infrastructural and human resources. Ebola outbreak also began in Boende, Equateur which is a part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ebola virus disease occurs in the Republic of the Congo, Africa, Ivory Coast, Sudan , Gabon, and Uganda, but there are chances of its occurance in other African countries. Transmission: Fruit bats that are included in Pteropodidae family are considered as natural Ebola virus hosts. Introduction of Ebola virus into the human population occurs through close contact with the organs, blood and secretions. Virus can also be transmitted by bodily fluids of infected animals such as gorillas, chimpanzees, forest antelope ,monkeys, porcupines. and fruit bats. Virus spreads via direct close contact through broken skin,fluids of infected people, mucous membranes and materials or surfaces contaminated with these fluids e.g. clothing and bedding. EVD spreads through close contact with infected patients when control precautions are not firmly practiced. It is transmitted by needles and syringes used to treat Ebola-infected patients. Transmission of Ebola occurs via those burial ceremonies in which people have direct close contact with the body of the dead infected by EVD. As long as blood and body fluids e.g semen and breast milk contain the ebola virus,people are considered infectious. Interestingly men can transmit the virus via their semen after recovering from illness for up to seven weeks. Symptoms Symptoms of Ebola virus disease are nonspecific. After the incubation period of 2 to 21 days, signs of Ebola virus are: abruptfever and fever fatigue headache joint pain muscle aches and pain sore throat weakness These symptoms are followed by : . This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash symptoms of impaired kidney and liver function both external and internal bleeding e.g. blood in the stools and oozing from the gums in some cases. Hiccups Stomach pain It is important to mention that humans are not infectious until they develop specific symptoms for disease. Diagnosis Distinguishing EVD from other infectious diseases for instance malaria, typhoid fever and meningitis is a difficult task. For identification of Ebola virus disease following strategies are used in order to confirm that symptoms are caused by Ebola virus. antibody-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) antigen-capture detection tests serum neutralization test reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay electron microscopy virus isolation by cell culture. ELISA and PCR are considered as efficient diagnostic tests for Ebola virus disease. Treatment Still there is no standard treatment for Ebola virus disease and only supportive therapy is available. Supportive therapy includes treatment of specific symptoms and supportive care-rehydration with intravenous fluids or orally. A wide range of treatments including immune therapies, drug therapies and blood products, are recently being evaluated for treatment of Ebola virus disease. Two vaccines are undergoing human safety testing but still there is no licensed vaccine available for treatment. Prevention and control Prevention and control of Ebola virus disease is much difficult. One can prevent from disease by early testing and isolation of the infected patient. Moreover ,barrier protection for caregivers for instance mask, gown, goggles, and gloves is necessary to prevent others from getting infected. Outbreak of disease can be controlled by applying a package of interventions, e.g., safe burials ,surveillance, , case management , social mobilisation., contact tracing and a good laboratory service. Outbreak control of disease relies on raising awareness of risk factors and protective measures that individuals can take in order to reduce human transmission. Risk reduction must consider following factors: Reducing the risk of wildlife-to-human transmission: In order to control its outbreak,it is very necessary to avoid contact with infected monkeys or fruit bats and the consumption of their infected meat. Infected and uninfected animals must carefully be handled with gloves and significant protective clothing. Thorough cooking of animal’s meat is required to reduce risk of infection. Reducing the risk of human-to-human transmission: One must avoid from direct or close contact with people suspected to be Ebola victims.Gloves and specific personal protective equipment must be used while looking after patients at hospitals or at home. Outbreak containment measures: It refers to safe burial of the dead,identification of people who may have been remained in contact with infected people, the significance of separating the healthy ones from the sick to prevent further spread and finally the importance of maintaining a neat and clean environment and good hygiene.

Genetically modified (GM) foods Essay

What does a tomato, soybean, and McDonald’s French fry have in common? They are all some of the most commonly genetically modified foods sold on the market today. By using the genetic information from one organism, and inserting or modifying it into another organism, scientists can make food crops stay fresher, grow bigger, and have the crops create their own pesticides. Nevertheless, the technology to modify genes has surpassed its practicality. Genetically modified foods need to be removed from everyday agriculture because of the threat they pose to human health, the environment, and the impact on global economy. Genetically modified (GM) foods could produce new toxic substances, and/or allergens. A gene from the Brazil nut was inserted into the DNA of a soybean plant to increase the nutritional value of the soybean. However, this particular gene in the GM soybean also produced an allergen (a substance that causes allergic reactions in people). Fortunately, the plant was not put into production (McHughen 119). Another example is of a GM tomato called â€Å"FLAVR SAVR†. The tomato is larger, tastier, and stays fresher longer than commercial tomatoes on the market. Combining conventional tomato genes with the genes of an arctic trout produces the â€Å"FLAVR SAVR†. Nevertheless, questions such as â€Å"Will people with sea food allergies be able to consume the tomato?† and â€Å"Will the trout genes in the tomato enable new bacteria growth, and thereby make the tomato hazardous to eat?† have still not been answered. This causes the â€Å"FLAVR SAVR† to be a potential hazard to human health (McHughen 14, 112). Since technology is new with regards to genetics, there is no real way of knowing whether genetically modified foods would take a negative impact on the body. An incident that occurred in 1989 concerning the nutritional supplement L- Tryptophan is one way of testing the long-term effects of a GM food (Background on L-tryptophan and 5-hydroxy L-tryptophan and the eosinophilia myalgia syndrome, U.S. Food and Drug Administration). The manufacturer had apparently altered its manufacturing process to speed up production, and had not realized the toxic side effects. However, it caused a potentially fatal illness called Eosinophilia Myolgia Syndrome in which 37 people died and 1500 more were permanently disabled (Background on L-tryptophan and 5-hydroxy L-tryptophan and the eosinophilia myalgia syndrome, U.S. Food and Drug Administration). Therefore, it was taken off the market shortly after the reports of widespread illness among consumers of the supplement. Another two examples of diseases that have been created by GM crops are glufosinate (Hart 21), which causes birth defects in mammals, and glyphosate (Hart 88), which is now linked to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Therefore, it is evident that the general public is the guinea pig for GM food, and today’s drugs may not be able to combat the diseases that may arise from eating the food. Superbugs are created when genes transfer from one species to another, and if an antibiotic-resistant or pesticide-resistant gene were to transfer from an organism into a disease creating bacteria, then an antibiotic-resistant or pesticide-resistant bug would be created (Miller 83). This applies to bacteria and viruses that are symbiotically related. Gene modification is indirectly making life resistant to diseases, and these bacteria and viruses will adapt to the new form of life and create new disorders. Furthermore, GM crops may make the â€Å"normal† biological pest spray obsolete. This is because pests will soon develop resistance to the spray because of the widespread planting of GM crops. Nevertheless, superbug pesticides have not yet been manufactured, nor have superbug antibiotics been created (Miller 92). Consequently, the health risks for humans through superbug infections or by eating GM food is very serious, and the consequences that may come about have the potent ial to be life threatening. Genetic engineering of food crops has the potential to affect the biodiversity of a region in effectively two ways. First, wild populations of weed may be replaced by GM crop/weed, due to the GM crop spreading outside the crop field and interacting with natural weed and slowly becoming GM weed. Since GM crops are produced to be resistant to pesticides and herbicides, there is the possibility that they could invade wild grasslands and other places and prosper because of these special characteristics. If this happened, the native grasses would be unable to compete and biodiversity would be lost in these regions. Also, many genetically engineered crops contain anti-viral genes and there is the potential that these genes could combine to form new and dangerous strains of viruses, which could destroy specific crops. Although, to date, there is no direct evidence of these occurring naturally, the potential is clearly increasing (UK Agricultural Biodiversity Coalition. What is happening to Agricultural Biodiversity?). The second way in which the biodiversity of a region is potentially affected is by the decreasing crop varieties that are being planted. This is a problem already existing in agriculture today, and results in a loss of genetic variety within crop cultures. Farmers being forced to use only patented seeds are an example of a potential decrease in biodiversity. If traditional seed varieties are used, farmers will be at a financial disadvantage due to better tasting, better looking crops produced by farmers using GM seeds. In the U.S., and some other countries, laws have been passed and are currently in effect stating that the use of non-patented seeds is prohibited. This will restrict the crops to a few species, leaving them more at risk to new pests that may form (UK Agricultural Biodiversity Coalition. What are the underlying causes of the Losses of Agricultural Biodiversity?). The European community is by far the most anti-GM, so to speak, when it comes to the retail of GM food in their supermarkets (Tackling Food Safety Concerns over GMO’s, Consumer attitudes and decision-making with regard to genetically modified food products). Regulations are being imposed on the European Parliament, individual European nations, and some stores themselves have all imposed restrictions on GM foods. Manufacturers must label all foods that might have genetically altered ingredients. This includes food with genetically manufactured organisms, food with an intentionally modified molecular structure, and food that has been isolated for microorganisms, fungi, and algae. Furthermore, the genetically altered food must not mislead the consumer, present any danger to the consumer, or differ from the food that it is intended to replace so that the altered food is a nutritional disadvantage to the consumer (Tackling Food Safety Concerns over GMO’s, Development of meth ods to identify foods produced by means of genetic engineering). This legislation has now created trade barriers for food coming into Europe – some imported food is genetically modified and creates a risk to the people’s health and safety. Nevertheless, because some supermarkets in Europe have decided to be non-GM only, this has created a competitive disadvantage for the â€Å"half†-GM supermarkets. This response to consumer pressure is also having an effect on some companies or countries that cannot meet the legislative needs, and are obliged to lose markets and/or market shares (Tackling Food Safety Concerns over GMO’s, European network safety assessment of genetically modified food crops). If the world finally agrees to the consumption of GM food, European countries will be the last to â€Å"give-in† to the more lenient regulations. If one is to ask a North American if the product he or she is eating contains GM food, he or she will most likely show a blank stare. This is because regulation of GM food in North America is relatively relaxed when compared to Europe (Borger, second paragraph). Since the manufacturer is not required to label their products, the consumer is oblivious to buying GM food at the supermarket. Agriculture and technology are both being heavily invested in the United States. Profit is an important driving force for the developed world, and agricultural exports make up a large portion of exports from the United States (Borger, third paragraph). Since the demand for food is always increasing, the demand to produce more food at a faster rate requires the need for better biotechnology to be put into practice. And because of the lax laws in effect for the United States, and Canada, North Americans are â€Å"in the dark† with regards to what they are eating during their meals. North Americans are not educated about the risks of GM food, nor are they aware of where to find information regarding how much GM food is in their groceries (Borger, 12th paragraph). This poses a serious threat to the potential health of North Americans, as they are nothing but â€Å"lab rats† waiting for their first abnormal â€Å"twitch†. Human health can be seen as the greatest factor when considering the manufacturing of GM food. This is because of the few diseases and viruses that have been discovered which formed through the use of GM food. Also, the potential for new diseases and/or viruses through the use of GM food is increasing, and people are not aware of the risks. Antibiotics or pesticides have not yet been created to combat the superbug, and this is a concern for humans, as it will infect people, and crops altogether. There is a potential for the biodiversity to decrease because of gene transfers from one species to another, creating more powerful crops, which may take over the natural populations of weeds and grasslands. An additional way for the biodiversity to decrease is by farmers planting only a single variety of crop, thus wiping out the varied species needed to keep the diversity within crop fields. Europeans are the most aware of GM food, and are taking the necessary precautions and legislative actions to protect themselves against the use of GM food. However, North Americans are the least aware of GM food, and their government has not yet educated their citizens on the risks of GM food. There are too many risks involved in the use of GM food, and its removal from the agricultural and biotechnological industries will benefit human health, the environment, and global economy.

Differences Between Law School and Undergrad

Multicultural Aging Project 2015 Interviewing A Native...

Multicultural Aging Project 2015 Interviewing a Native American elder helped me to better understand her physical and emotional needs. I learned that the elders are vulnerable people who need support. After my interview, I recognized that there are many conditions that the Native American elders face such as lack of support from the government; discrimination from fellow Americans; lack of support from their families; limited respect from their community; lastly, they feel neglected because of their disabilities. Why are vulnerable groups suffering, especially elderly Native Americans? They are suffering because they have no advocates, and they don t know the resources and programs that are available to them. We can avoid the difficulties they are facing by making sure that the communities, the U.S. government, relatives, and fellow Americans work together to support this vulnerable group of people. Native American elders are challenged by the American government because of their history and relationship to the government. Native Americans have been discriminated by the government by, Acts of violence and murder, isolation on reservations, land-grabbing, denial voting rights, removal from traditional lands to new and unfamiliar reservations, efforts to force Native Americans to conform to European culture, stealing of mineral and resources for rights (Aguirre Turner, 2009 p. 174). This means that the Native Americans encountered many problems that impacted Native