Overview
The global disease epidemiology and control provides information on disease surveillance activities. The sector conducts research about communicable disease outbreak and provides the public with necessary information about causative agents, prevention, and control strategies. The purpose of this paper is to investigate epidemiology in public and global health by analyzing an article about factors influencing the spread of Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa and the impact of the research on nursing practice.
Article Summary
The article was written by Gambacorti-Passerini, Mussolin, and Brugieres on January 7, 2016. Authors aimed at investigating the role of different cultural factors and the physiology of male and female on the outbreak of Ebola virus in West Africa. Confirmed Ebola cases were reported in various regions in West Africa between December 2013 and August 2015. The most affected nations included Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea (Gambacorti-Passerini, Mussolin, and Brugieres, 2016). Health experts engaged in many forms of studies to investigate the main causes of the virus and how it could be ended. According to Kucharski (2104), the Ebola virus continues to expand in many regions in West Africa and if not early contained it might expand to other parts of the continent and the world at large. The control of the virus faces a lot of challenges because it is a communicable disease. Despite many theories that argue the virus is easily containable, health experts across the world have experienced difficulties determining the main strategies to contain the virus.
Relationship among causal agents
Gambacorti-Passerini, Mussolin, and Brugieres’ article touched a little about the relationship among causative agents of the Ebola virus. The primary causative agent of the Ebola virus is the Filoviridae virus that acts as one of the most virulent viruses in the human body. The Zaire special of Ebola contributed into many Ebola cases in West Africa. Other causative agents include the Sudan virus, the Ivory Coast virus, and the Bundibugyo virus (Bray and Chertow, 2016). All Ebola virus causative agents have a common relationship because they can attack every person’s irrespective of the gender and background. The article investigated how an individual's gender influences the ability of the virus to spread the disease. Authors tested sex-related differences among victims of Ebola virus disease to ascertain the characteristics of different causative agents. The virus is spread through getting into contact with the infected person through the body fluids, blood, or the skin. Additionally, the virus can spread event spread when a person gets into contact with body fluids, or blood of the dead victim.
Susceptible persons
The article investigated the Ebola virus disease outbreak between males and females in affected countries in West Africa. The susceptible rate between males and females in the three countries had insignificant differences, concluding that the virus attacks people of both genders. However, the social behavior of both male and female victims was investigated by researchers. Female patients recorded higher survival rates compared to male counterparts. The low survival rate among male victims was caused by their social behavior because they spent more hours interacting with others in the community, increasing the rate of infection.
Environmental factors
The emergence of the Ebola virus disease has a lot of association with environmental factors. Environmental factors such as changes in climate, people’s lifestyle, and living standards of the people influenced the emergence of the disease. Human-mediated environmental changes contribute to the highest rate of Ebola virus disease spread. For example, Guinean forest, which is considered as the key hotspot for the emergence of the virus, contains numerous African Mammalian fauna. Human activities such as agriculture and timber harvesting created environmental changes that offered a better opportunity for direct exposure to infected animals such as bats. The change created a direct transmission pathway. The article shows men as the most affected because their movements in and out of bushes in search of food and other natural resources increases chances of outbreak and spread of the Ebola virus (Gambacorti-Passerini, Mussolin, and Brugieres, 2016).
Impact on nursing practice
The article contributes a lot to the practice of nursing and the health care prevention and control programs in general. He BSN nurse has a big role to play in addressing Ebola outbreak. First, the article helps the BSN nurse in understanding primary cultural factors that contribute to the spread of the virus. Authors found out that both male and female Ebola patients have an average rate of infection transfer. However, under certain circumstances, male are more prevalent than female. The above information helps the nursing practice in identifying strategies educating the public about the primary signs and symptoms to look after to avoid contacting the virus.
On the other hand, containing the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has been the most difficult work of researchers in disease epidemiology and outbreak center. Efforts to contain the disease require mobilization from health care professionals, the community, and the government. The article creates a significant impact on the nursing practice by increasing their knowledge about the epidemiology of the Ebola virus disease. The information gathered from the article helps the nursing practice form partnerships and coordinate outbreak responses in their respective health care organizations. Additionally, nurses working in areas not affected by the outbreak have an opportunity to learn how to contain the disease and reduce the number of outbreaks between male and female patients suffering from other illnesses.
Finally, the article enables the nursing practice gain knowledge and skills on how to handle Ebola virus victims and avoid contacting the disease. The analysis of the relationship between causative agents and the means of spread has a lot of significance in the nursing practice. The article prepares future nurses for a better preparedness and gives them a chance to come up with other studies on how to control the Ebola virus environment. In 2014, the United States in collaboration with other international health bodies came up with an initiative to address the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The U.S. Congress funded the program with $88 million for Ebola response and authorized the Department of Defense (DOD) to program for overseas disaster management operations. 17 Ebola treatment units were developed in Liberia, and the program helped contain the virus for a longer period (Salaam-Blyther, 2014).
Summary
The paper provides a summary of the article that analyzes the spread of Ebola virus among male and female in West Africa. An explicit epidemiological approach about the disease has been discussed focusing on the information about the outbreaks, susceptible persons, and environmental factors. The paper has also revealed the significance of the article on the nursing practice including increasing nurses' knowledge about the disease and promoting collaborations between health care professionals, the government and the public in containing the disease outbreak.
References
Bray, M., and Chertow, D. S. (2016, January 21). Epidemiology and pathogenesis of Ebola virus
disease. Retrieved from http://www.uptodate.com/contents/epidemiology-and-pathogenesis-of-ebola-virus-disease
Gambacorti-Passerini, C., Mussolin, L. and Brugieres, L. (2016, Jan 7). Ebola virus disease among male
and female persons in West Africa. The New England Journal of Medicine, 374, 96-98. Retrieved from http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc1510305?query=featured_ebola
Kucharski A. J., and Piot, P. (2014). Containing Ebola virus infection in West Africa. Euro
Surveill. 19(36): 20899.
Salaam-Blyther, T. S. (2014, October 29). U.S. and international health response to the Ebola
outbreak in West Africa. Congressional Research Service.
