The Ebola Epidemic: The Fight, The Future

· Twenty-First Century Books
Ebook
112
Pages
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About this ebook

An ordinary blue thermos holding blood samples from a sick nun in Zaire reached Belgium's Institute of Tropical Medicine in September 1976. From the samples, researchers discovered a new virus, which they named the Ebola virus after a river in Central Africa. The virus killed two hundred eighty people before it seemingly disappeared into the jungle. No one suspected the virus would erupt in West Africa nearly four decades later to cause an unprecedented epidemic.

Ebola has riveted—and terrified—the world since its reemergence from the jungle, killing more than eleven thousand people in West Africa since December 2013. Transmitted through bodily fluids—blood, saliva, sweat, vomit, feces, and semen—the disease causes high fever, widespread pain, nausea and vomiting, and severe diarrhea. Patients may develop dangerous bleeding and organ failure. With no effective treatment available, about 40 percent of infected people die within days. Using proper protective gear, safe burial protocols, cleansing techniques, and educational outreach, the disease has been slowed in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone—at least temporarily.

Can researchers develop vaccines quickly enough to prevent new outbreaks? Will Ebola move beyond West Africa? Readers will hear from Ebola survivors, learn what experts say about this devastating disease, and draw their own conclusions about whether another epidemic can be prevented.

About the author

Connie Goldsmith is a registered nurse with a bachelor of science degree in nursing and a master of public administration degree in health care. She has written numerous books for YA readers and nearly two hundred magazine articles. Her recent books include Kiyo Sato: From a WWII Japanese Internment Camp to a Life of Service (2020), a Junior Library Guild selection; Running on Empty: Sleeplessness in American Teens (2021); Understanding Coronaviruses: SARS, MERS, and the COVID-19 Pandemic (2021); and Bombs Over Bikini: The World's First Nuclear Disaster (2014), a Junior Library Guild selection, a Children's Book Committee at Bank Street College Best Children's Book of the Year, an Association of Children's Librarians of Northern California Distinguished Book, and an SCBWI Crystal Kite Winner. She lives in Sacramento, California. Visit her website at http://www.conniegoldsmith.com/.

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