Dec. 1st 2014
SOCL 366
WHAT SHOULD BE THE MAIN CONCERNS OF THE MEDICAL RESEARCHERS IN THEIR QUEST FOR AN EBOLA CURE?
More than 4,000 people have died from Ebola, the majority of them in Western Africa in places such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. There have been multiple Ebola scares in the United States over the past few months. On Wednesday, October 15th, President Barack Obama finally spoke out about the Ebola virus. NBC news reported that Obama stated "I want people to understand that the dangers of you contracting Ebola, the dangers of a serious outbreak in this country are extraordinary low, but we are taking this very seriously at the highest levels of government.” Although Obama said that, it is difficult …show more content…
Now that we see how serious this disease is, we need to come together and figure out a way to stop it from spreading. The question we need answered is how the United States is going to make sure that Ebola does not spread any further.
We all know is no cure for Ebola. We must educate our citizens and stop the disease all together. First, people must learn the possible ways to contract the disease. Ebola is spread through direct contact with blood, bodily fluids, objects that have been contaminated with the disease and infected animals. Ebola is not spread through the air or water. Even though it looks like researchers are not doing anything, they actually are. Testing and thorough clinical trials are fundamental to good medical drugs and when it comes to the Ebola virus its very hard to get a vaccine without further testing. So what 's stopping them to stop Ebola? To begin with, antiviral therapy is an especially challenging field compared to bacterial diseases, because viruses have fewer targets for treatment. And they evolve quickly. If a vaccine is developed today that works, it might not make a dent in future outbreaks. And with five known species of Ebola virus, there 's plenty of room for further viral evolution.