Ebola disease: an international public health emergency

Ebola virus disease (EVD), previously known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is a severe illness\udcaused by Ebola filovirus, and is often fatal if left untreated. The first case of the current EVD\udwas diagnosed in Guinea in March 2014, and since then it has spread to Sierra Leone, Liberia,\udNigeria, and Senegal. The current review has been performed with an objective to explore the\udmagnitude of the current Ebola virus epidemic and identify the multiple determinants that\udhave resulted in the exponential growth of the epidemic. An extensive search of all materials\udrelated to the topic was done for almost two months (August-October) in Pubmed, Medline,\udWorld Health Organization website and Google Scholar search engines. Relevant documents,\udreports, recommendations, guidelines and research articles focusing on the different aspects\udof Ebola virus and its current outbreak, published in the period 2002-2014 were included\udin the review. Keywords used in the search include Ebola virus, Ebola virus disease, Ebola\udhemorrhagic fever, Ebola vaccine, and Ebola treatment. The current EVD epidemic has turned\udout to be extensive, severe, and uncontrollable because of a delayed response and ineffective\udpublic health care delivery system. In fact, multiple challenges have also been identified and\udthus a range of interventions have been proposed to control the epidemic. In conclusion, the\ud2014 epidemic of EVD has shown to the world that in absence of a strong public health care\uddelivery system even a rare disease can risk the lives of millions of people. The crux of this\udepidemic is that a large scale and coordinated international response is the need of the hour to\udsupport affected and at-risk nations in intensifying their response activities and strengthening\udof national capacities