Review Article
Ebola Outbreak: Knowledge to Act
Samuel Kimani1*, Jane Kamau2, Zephania Irura31University of Nairobi, School of Nursing, Po Box 19676-00202 Kenyatta National Hospital, Kenya
2International Medical Corps, IMC Head office, Plot No 246, Block 3K South, Tongping Area, Juba, Central Equatorial State, Southern Sudan
3Ministry of Health, Kenya, Disease Surveillance and Response-Unit , Po Box 30016 Nairobi, Kenya
- *Corresponding Author:
- Samuel Kimani
University of Nairobi
School of Nursing
Po Box 19676-00202
Kenyatta National Hospital, Kenya
Tel: +254 722 384917
Email: tkimani@uonbi.ac.ke
Received date: October 20, 2014; Accepted date: November 05, 2014; Published date: November 12, 2014
Citation: Kimani S, Kamau J, Irura Z (2014) Ebola Outbreak: Knowledge to Act. Occup Med Health Aff 2:184. doi: 10.4172/2329-6879.1000184
Copyright: © 2014 Kimani S et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
The persistence, spread and escalation of Ebola virus disease (EVD) ravaging West Africa is now a serious global threat. The epidemic has resulted in unprecedented number of deaths and cases including health care workers in countries with the poorest staffing patterns. This article provide a general background information on EVD and specifically address what is known and what need to be done at individual and society level to mitigate its effect. The epidemic appears to be attributed and sustained by negative socio-economic factors, notably extreme poverty, poor health infrastructure and disintegrated health care system. The extreme social-economic factors have created an atmosphere of fear, panic, helplessness, hopelessness further perpetuating the epidemic. There is need for the international community to scale up support for the affected countries to mitigate stress, restore supplies, economic activities and instill hope. Global concerted efforts, resource mobilization and support will contain and slow down the outbreak preventing international disaster and globalization of the outbreak.