Update on Ebola

A picture of an Ebola strand.

A picture of an Ebola strand.

Alyson Healy, Staff Writer

I’m sure that by now, you’ve probably heard about the Ebola virus and what’s been going on with it. If you haven’t, here’s  a brief overview:

Ebola is a virus that is spread, basically, through blood or bodily fluids- that is if you touch these of a person who has either died or has the virus. It is also spreadby touching objects that have been conatminated and by touching animals, their meat, bodily fluids, or blood, all of which would be contaiminated. However, ebola is NOT spread through food, water, or the air.

The  Liberian patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, who had flown into the U.S. and had been diagnosed with Ebola, died on Wednesday, October 6th, at Texas Health Prespateryan Hospital in Dallas, Texas. Before he was diagnosed, he had been walking around in the public, as well as with his family that he was visiting. These people are supposedly being monitered.

Then, a nurse, one of the Dallas Health workers, was diagnosed with Ebola on October 11th. Her name is Nina Pham, and she helped treat Mr. Duncan. A seccond nurse, Amber Vinson, became diagnosed and was the third person to be so, on October 14th.She had flown a Frontier Airlines flight form Clevelnd, Ohio to Dallas, Texas, on October 15th, and to Cleveland from Dallas on October 10th. She had been transferred to Emory Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. So, because of this, some airlines are deciding to screen passangers to see if they have a fever. So far, five U.S. airports have put this in into place: John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, New York, O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, Newark Liberty Airport in Newark, New Jersey, Hatsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, and Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia. (Since all five airports have the heavest percentage of passengers from Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea-the hotspots for ebola-and passengers from those countries are therefore required to fly to those five airports.)

President Obama, in mid October, appointed Ron Klain as the “Ebola response coordinator” (aka Ebola health czar). However, he has no medical experience whatsoever, but rather, is a laywer.

The good news is, that the first nurse, Nina Pham, is reportably in good contition and the CNN news reporter who contracted it is reportably cured. In addition, just recently, Amber Vinson was released from the hospital, cleared of Ebola. However, President Obama is pushing to grant amnesty (“a governament pardon especially  for political reasons”) for non-citizens from other  countries, to get treatment for people with Ebola.

For more news on this, stay tunned to your national news channels and radio stations.