Shut the Front Door: Quarantine Policy for Ebola

Stacey Stevens

Professor McCarty

ENG 112

12 Nov 2014

Shut the Front Door: Quarantine Policy for Ebola

        With the rise of this deadly disease following the threat eleven years ago that occurred in Liberia which resulted in the fall of the economy and the substratum health care. Surprisingly,  Liberia's health care facilities only about forty percent are operational while schools still remain closed.  This putridity is what America is about to be faced with. What steps are the Untied States taking to prevent this from bringing such destruction to the citizens? Government officials are at each other's throats on what is the correct way to handle this. Major debates have been in the making for months and the United States seems to fall short of stating permanent guidelines for monitoring such a high risk disease. With these shortcoming higher risk for infecting the United States is on the rise.

        In March 2014, the World Health Organization  reported a major Ebola outbreak in Guinea, a western African nation. Researchers traced the outbreak to a two year old child who died December 2013. The disease then rapidly spread to the neighboring countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone. It is the largest Ebola outbreak ever documented, and the first recorded in the region. August 2014,  the epidemic was an international public health emergency. Urging the world to offer aid to the affected regions, the countries that were affected  simply do not have the capacity to manage an outbreak of this size and complexity on their own.  The international community needs to provide support on the most urgent basis possible. The Doctors Without Borders reported the situation in Liberia's capital Monrovia as "catastrophic" and "deteriorating daily". They reported that fears of Ebola among staff members and patients had shut down much of the city’s health system, leaving many people without treatment for other conditions. By late August 2014, the disease had spread to Nigeria, and one case was reported in Senegal.

        September 2014, the first confirmed case of Ebola in the United States was diagnosed. The patient died eight days later. Aside from the human cost, the outbreak has severely eroded the economies of the affected countries.  The economic impact of the outbreak could kill more people than the virus itself. In the three hardest hit countries, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, around eight hundred treatment beds were available even though the current need was over two thousand beds. The Ebola epidemic ravaging parts of West Africa is the most severe acute public health emergency seen in modern times. Never before in recorded history has a safety level four pathogen infected so many people so quickly, over such a broad geographical area, for so long. More than 216 health-care workers were among the dead, partly due to the lack of equipment and long hours.

        The government has new guidelines to follow for all voluntary isolation and motoring of any person exposed to the Ebola infection in all fifty states. Some states are confused by the federal guidelines which may lead to discrepancies from state to state. Other states have stated a tougher policies to insure the safety of its citizens. Tougher guidelines may help, here is a healthcare worker preparing for Ebola (See Fig. 1). These are the steps that can contribute to regulate the steps needs to contain this deadly virus.[pic 1]