Ebola Nursing Tutorials
Ebola
Introduction: Ebola is an unique and fatal disease caused by a virus which has a side effect like having high temperature, diarrhea, body aches and occasionally bleeding internally. This deadly disease which is causes by virus have five species and four of them spread the disease very easily making the patient sick.
The virus can spread by the contact of skin or fluid of the infected animal like fruit bat, monkey, chimp or humans as it is not a contagious disease. The disease can also be spread by contagious needles or surfaces. Someone can’t infected by water, air or food. The semen sample or breast milk of a person can carry the virus after recovery for a week to several months. Fruit bat acts as the carrier for spreading of the virus by not being affected by it.
Symptoms: The disease has a general symptoms of flu and the infection period persists from day 2 to 21 days and the other symptoms include
- High fever
- Headache
- Weakness
- Stomach pain
- Joint and muscle ache
- Sore throat
- Intake of appetite is slowing down gradually
- Vomiting or blood in vomiting
- Blood in stool
- Diarrhea or bloody diarrhea
Diagnosis: Some sorts of blood test are done to detect the virus. It can only detected after the symptoms are visible. The test named polymerase chain reaction (PCR) enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) are commonly used to detect the organism as the method has the ability of detection of low no of microorganisms. The virus can detect under the examination of electronic microscope.
Treatment: Currently there are no treatment for Ebola virus. No antiviral medications are effective for the disease. But the supportive cares are include:
- Fluid in-taking.
- Blood pressure maintaining.
- Oxygen provided as needed.
- Lost blood replacing.
- Treating the infection except Ebola.
Prevention: The infected person needs to be isolated from the population for not spreading of the disease. The medical waste, patient waste, every equipment and the surface need to be thoroughly cleaned and autoclaved.
