Ebola Outbreak - the Situation of Nigeria Beating the Killer - Case Study Example

Ebola outbreak: The latest situation of Nigeria beating the killer virus The outbreak of Ebola took the world by storm and found most government and various international agencies mandated with the mitigation of such incidences unaware and unready to curb. The lack of proper mechanisms to control such scourges has cost the world over 9004 as per the latest UN reports. The same reports claim that currently reported cases are over 20,000 while laboratory confirmed cases are approximately 14,000. The African continent was the worst hit by the epidemic with West Africa being primarily the epitome of the disease. In line with the catastrophic nature of the epidemic, the report provides a two-week chronological account of the spread of the virus in Liberia starting from 27 January 2015 until 6 February 2015 when Nigeria announced total control of the virus. 27 January of 2015 As at 27 January of 2014, reports by the BBC indicated that Montserrat County in liberal as the only active place of the transport of the Ebola virus in Liberia. As at that date, no new cases of the Ebola epidemic in other countries implying that the spread of the virus was slowly edging out. Such was the case in Liberia as reported by Nyenswah, head of the incident management team. He pointed that the county of Montserrado reports an average of one two instances of the incidents daily, with the community of St Paul Bridge the most revered place. The reference comes from the fact that the last confirmed cases were reported in that community. The decrease in the count of instances incidents is further confirmed by 12 days of no incidents reported from another Ebola prone area of Grand Cape. Only one patient was booked at the ETU in Sinje. A BBC correspondent claims that a 21-day drought in the reporting of any Ebola incident would make Liberia join the other 13 West African countries that have declared their countries no Ebola zones. Among the measures taken to curb the incidence is closely monitoring cross-border activities to curb unwarranted in and the country (Stephens 27). 30 January 2015 The Liberian government targeted to declare the country Ebola free by the end of February 2015. As earlier indicated, the Liberian case has only two counties in the 15 counties had scattered cases of the incident. Assistant minister for health reported that collaborating with well-wishers and the masses as among the means of curbing the spread of the virus. Still, the Grand Cape Mount County close to the border to Sierra Leone as the hotspot for the transmission of the virus. Due to the potency of the virus, neighboring Sierra Leone had done tremendous progress in fighting the spread of the disease. The WHO showed that despite having a higher incidence rate of the virus, Sierra Leone had improved drastically. Similarly, neighboring Guinea had also shown substantial improvements. In totality, the three described nations as per the reports of the WHO had confirmed the lowest weekly incidences of new cases for months. As at this period, total number of casualties was 8400 persons in Liberia Guinea and Sierra Leone with 21, 200 others confirmed to have been infected with the virus. However, Liberia was the worst hit with over 3,500 of the victims to be Liberian nationals 3 February 2015 Liberians health officials have confirmed fresh Ebola outbreaks in the capital, Monrovia. Just a day after an experimental study of the trial vaccines is launched in the country. The number of reported incidents in the capital reached five persons with from individuals hailing from three different communities in the western suburbs of the city. At as this time, the death toll in liberal had reached 3, 7100 basing on the WHO’s official reports (Mawolo 3) The fresh reports of the outbreak come amid fears of the reopening of schools, which has been delayed by several months due to the epidemic. Prior to the fresh outbreak in the capital, hopes were high since there were only two new confirmed cases in the treatment centers. The assistant minister partially blames the continued spreads of the infection to ignorant persons failing to seek medical attention despite the availability of treatment centers. However, he indicated that investigations were underway to ascertain the causes. So severe is the liberation government on the issue that it has threatened to invoke a public health law that prosecutes and punishes persons spreading the virus through negligence. A joint Liberia-US Partnership is currently undertaking a large-scale trial that could provide a vaccine against the virus. The vaccine aims to liberate the 28,000 persons at the risk of succumbing to the infection (Mawolo 3) 4 February 2015 The country worst hit by the virus shows sustained lead against the virus with only seven reported incidences confirmed as at this date. The time comes when the country is on a path to hitting a breakthrough in the Ebola epidemic. However, a sudden twist came when the Liberian government shut down a vaccine development center after a decrease in the count of reported incidences at treatment centers. The reports are also after the US-based drug brincidofovir manufacturer Chimerx claimed that plans were underway to pull out of the trial. Similar manufacturer welcome trust too was opting out of the country. As great strides in curbing of the scourge continue to be made, the decommissioning of major Ebola treatment centers was underway (Williams 4) 5 February 2014 The currently used trials of the Ebola treatment receive significant criticisms from lawmakers regarding the procedure utilized in the process. The criticisms are leveled after reports showed the possibility of people dying from the trial vaccine. The crisis was made during a Senate hearing on benefits for casualties of the trial vaccine. Nevertheless, a Senate hearing on the issue was told by Dr. Stephen Kennedy that no such arrangements had been made to compensate victims of the trial vaccine. Being part of the team that had received the trail vaccine claimed that no such legal frameworks existed to compensate such persons. That the trials are based on a voluntary basis, and that they are in partnership with the United States and Canada. The doctor claims that the country is on the verge of entering the books of history as the first country to create a vaccine to the killer disease. It will be among the significant contribution of the country to the public despite the existence of parallel researchers in other areas. The trial of two vaccines begun on Monday and twelve persons volunteered to take the vaccines. The vaccine experimentation termed PREVAIL is a joint government initiative between the United States and Liberia with financing rendered by the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases. Currently used vaccines availed to Liberian volunteers are made by GlaxoSmithKline and Canadian based Merck/Newlink (Howard 5). However, despite the tremendous milestone marked by Liberia, Margibi County reported a new Ebola death after a prolonged one month of no deaths. The victim, hailing from St. Paul Community in Monrovia is reported to have sought herbal treatment after developing the Ebola symptoms. The county health team reacted promptly to the incident and carried out a test that proved positive. As such, the team declared that 256 persons from the towns of Gaygbah and papa that had been exposed to the victim were to be quarantined to curtail the spread of the virus (Howard 5). 6 February 2015 After the Margibi incident, the head of Liberia incidence management system, Nyenswah discloses that the counties of Lofa and Margibi are threatened with novel outbreaks of the Ebola virus. He claimed that the county of Lofa has had about 18 contacts stemming from just one case in Monrovia (Parley 6). Nyenswah has earlier hoped that by early February the county would have zero cases of Ebola but regretted that the Ebola combatants are working round the clock to round up Ebola contacts that are proving elusive. The reports by Nyenswah come at a time when the WHO has shown how Nigeria has managed to control the spread of the killer disease (Parley 6). Despite the gloom regarding the escalating crisis in western African states, Lagos has shown that the right prompt and right initiatives are the ingredients to a welcome result (Shuknam). Works cited Howard-Taylor, Jewel. "Liberia: Legislature Summons Executors of Ebola Vaccine Trial." AllAfrica.com. 5 Feb. 2015. Web. 9 Feb. 2015. . Mawolo, Adolphus. "Liberia: New Ebola Cases Reported." AllAfrica.com. 3 Feb. 2015. Web. 9 Feb. 2015. . Parley, Winston W. "Liberia: Ebola Remerges in Lofa." AllAfrica.com. 6 Feb. 2015. Web. 9 Feb. 2015. . Shuknam, David. "Nigeria Fights Back against Ebola." BBC News. Web. 9 Feb. 2015. . Stephens, Richard. "Liberia: Montserrado Active Transporter of Ebola - Nyenswah." AllAfrica.com. 28 Jan. 2015. Web. 9 Feb. 2015. . Williams, Wade C. L. "Liberia: Govt Starts Shutting Some Ebola Treatment Units." AllAfrica.com. 4 Feb. 2015. Web. 9 Feb. 2015. Read More