Why to Not Fear Ebola -Blythe Taylor 3rd Period

    As another case of Ebola is found in Dallas, more hysteria is ignited with people all around the US. The victim is a nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. She was involved in Duncan's care after he was placed in isolation, which was is his second trip to the hospital after coming to the United States from Liberia. Although this is a very concerning topic for many, I believe that it has been blown out of proportion. Ebola is actually difficult to catch. People are at risk if they come into very close contact with the blood, saliva, sweat, feces, semen, vomit or soiled clothing of an Ebola patient, or if they travel to affected areas in West Africa and come into contact with someone who has Ebola. But despite these most recent cases, the odds are extremely low that an Ebola infection could spread into a full-fledged outbreak.Ebola is not transmitted through the air, which makes it much harder to spread than respiratory diseases like the measles. There is no cure for Ebola. There is no vaccine, either. But that doesn’t mean you’re doomed to die if you get it. Doctors use “supportive care” to help patients fight Ebola. That means they aim to keep patients' immune systems strong enough to defeat the virus, and give them medicine, antibiotics and fluids to fight it. This situation reminds me of the small pox epidemic. We have learned from our history that to contain a virus, we must learn how it works first. I think that Emory University as well as the CDC are doing a thorough job of truly examining the virus and hopefully they can keep it under control without making many people's dramatized scenarios about it become a reality



http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/12/health/ebola/