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Step 1
Take blood tests if symptoms are indicative of the Ebola virus. The CDC has set up laboratories to immediately test for the virus if symptoms are present as it's fast acting and deadly with the death rate being between 60 and 90 percent. The disease is spread through contact with blood or other bodily fluids, especially those in the reproductive system. It's even thought to be transferred through the perspiration of the victim.
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Step 2
Follow proper procedure if a patient is indeed infected with the disease. All victims are immediately segregated and are allowed no outside contact. All health-care workers must wear protective garb and follow protocol, which includes procedures for dressing and removing gear. The worker must follow a one-way system, moving from suspected victims to known victims so as to reduce risk of further infection.
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Step 3
Provide medication necessary for controlling fever and internal bleeding, help for breathing problems and maintaining blood pressure. Because dehydration, which leads to clinical shock, is a major cause of death, IV's are usually needed to provide fluids and necessary electrolytes to patient. Because of the deadly nature of the disease, palliative care is usually the only treatment option.
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Step 4
Attempt a treatment, which introduces a less virulent form of the Ebola virus, cultured in a vaccine, to be injected into victim. This may cause the body to respond with a reaction which can produce antibodies to fight the invasion of the more deadly strain, destroying present virus particles of the virus. This procedure may cause lifetime immunity to the disease.
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Step 5
Follow the correct procedure for burial or cremation of a victim who has died as a result of this disease. In these victims the virus is particularly virulent and care must be taken to dispose of the bodies in a way which contains the spread of the Ebola virus. If bodies are not cremated, they're immediately inserted into a plastic bag and buried.
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Step 6
Read new material on the research being done to create an Ebola virus vaccine. A vaccine has been found which protects monkeys, to whom the virus is just as deadly as it is to humans, and clinical trials are underway to create a vaccine for humans. There are two types which are promising and researchers are hopeful they will be effective.
