Adam C. Levine wears protective equipment, as he visits patients devastated by Ebola in Liberia. Photo courtesy of Huffington Post.
Every few days, a hundred people die in Liberia, as Adam C. Levine, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Brown Medical School, illuminates. The culprit is Ebola – a disease that causes its victims excessive diarrhea and bleeding from strange places.
Ebola is not picky with its victims; it spreads to everyone who comes in contact with bodily fluids of those already affected, according to Levine. Everyone, from doctors to nurses to citizens, now suffer from the disease.
Levine demonstrates the preventative measures doctors and nurses take simply to avoid contracting the disease, where they cover their entire body with scrubs, gum boots, gloves, tychem suits, aprons, and goggles, followed by duct tape to cover small bits of exposed skin. Despite this, clinics are still closing because neither doctors nor nurses are available, as they have contracted the disease themselves. As a result, many have died from easily treatable illnesses.
Ebola’s cure, however, is relatively simple. As Levine states, all that is needed is chlorine, alcohol, soap, and detergent. Without protective equipment, which healthcare workers lack the funds to buy, even these simple household products cannot eradicate the disease.
Levine ultimately says that “if [the international community fails] to act soon, [then] we are going to need some very large, nation-sized body bags.”
The epidemic has begun, and it is not stopping.
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