Deadly Ebola

The Department of Health is closely monitoring seven Filipino OFWs who recently came home from Sierra Leone, where an Ebola outbreak has caused more than nine hundred deaths. There has been no reported case of Ebola infection in the Philippines to date, but the DOH is not taking any chances and is closely watching every Filipino who comes back home, especially from Africa. Presently, there is no cure nor a vaccine for immunity. Everyone is at risk of contracting the disease, especially if exposed to infected persons. Countries positive for the outbreak are Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. The seven OFWs back from Sierra Leone are monitored daily by the DOH for any symptom related to Ebola ---- fever, reddish eyes, difficulty in breathing or swallowing, bleeding, and general malaise. These are just some of the symptoms, which can also be attributed to other viral infections. Close monitoring is crucial. What might be thought of as an ordinary cold may well be Ebola. If any of the symptoms are detected suspected patients must immediately be isolated.

The DOH has assured that the chances of Ebola coming to the country is very slim. Ebola is not airborne. It needs an infected host to travel from one place to another. Infection sets in when one comes in contact with infected blood, or has been injured by instruments exposed to the infection. Health workers are at the highest risk of being infected. At least one doctor has already been killed by Ebola. With modern transportation being fast and efficient, a single infected person that slips into the country can prove deadly. Ebola is spreading rapidly in West Africa, where a crisis has been declared. Alert levels have been raised on all ports of entry, and everyone entering the country is being thoroughly screened.

Since there is no cure for Ebola, all that can be done is supportive. The disease has to run its course, and one can only hope that the immune system of the infected person is strong enough to weather it. More than fifty percent of those infected eventually succumb. A vaccine is not available at this time. Ebola is one of those deadly diseases that the world has not been able to eradicate. So one cannot stress enough the importance of being careful, and vigilant. Almost every country is on high alert.

The deadliest outbreak on record is the Spanish Flu of 1918. The virus circled the planet and left more than twenty million dead. Nothing could be done but wait for the inevitable once infected. The disease ran its course for about two years until the virus dissipated. Something like this cannot be allowed to happen and is unthinkable in this modern time. The chaos that such an infection would bring to the world if allowed to spread worldwide is unfathomable.

There is a theory that supports the idea of these mutated diseases as a tool to "balance" nature in that man is constantly confronted in history with a formidable disease that wipes out a considerable number of the population. Dengue, as simple as it is thought of, but as deadly as it has proven to be, is now under threat of a vaccine that is on its way to development. But until medicine catches up with nature's design, it's a battle we simply cannot win.