In the latest outbreak, more than 8,000 people worldwide have been diagnosed with Ebola. In Africa, it is a pandemic. With a mortality rate near 70%, thousands have lost their battle with the virus which disables the immune system and speeds on to rupture arteries and veins. Until recently, infections were rampant only in West Africa where sanitation and healthcare are shaky, but now, healthcare workers in the United States have been diagnosed with this feared disease. Surveys find Americans are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with each new confirmed case. But are you really at risk for getting Ebola? The symptoms of Ebola infection mimic common influenza, but with key differences. The flu is typically a respiratory illness, says Dr. Ginger Cameron, Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice at Cedarville University in Ohio, but Ebola does not move in that same pattern, so Ebola is gonna move more into your guts. Youre gonna start having upset stomach, vomiting, nausea and diarrhea. Personal contact with an infected person puts families and care providers at risk. Theres bleeding with Ebola so youll start to have bleeding, it can be from any spot on the body, you actually have a significant amount of that; and so youre having exposure to those body fluids in the care of those family members. So the easiest way is to use protective equipment while theyre doing that. Cameron continues, If you have not had exposure to anyone with Ebola, we dont want to panic -- your chances of having it are pretty much nil." Dr. Dennis Sullivan, Professor of Biology and Director of the Center for Bioethics at Cedarville University, agrees that careful handling of infected materials is sufficient to prevent infection. He calls the virus fragile and says it quickly dries and dies on surfaces making it very hard to catch without direct contact. It is not a difficult disease to safely treat and the risk to healthcare workers is minimal, so we should not be fearful of this here in the United States." Even so, air travel into and out of the U.S. has become the focus with the news of a second infection of a Texas nurse who boarded a flight the day before. Though the virus is not believed to transmit through breathing, the danger lurking in infected body fluids raises a question about something as simple as sweat left on an airplane seat. "Your skin is gonna be a great barrier for the most part unless youve had some type of wound, you have a scratch or cut of some sort, or you dont wash your hands and then you touch your face, youre allowing that virus to get in, says Dr. Cameron. She is confident that direct contact is the only way to contract this disease. Ebola is very infective but not exceedingly contagious." It seems to me, in general, its not a good idea to let feverish people get on airplanes, counters Dr. Jane Orient, President of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness. She advocates more stringent avoidance of invisible droplets of fluid. There have been a lot of very reassuring things put out by the CDC, for one thing, saying you cant get it from a person whos not symptomatic, but theres no way to know that for sure. She does not warn the public against boarding airplanes for routine travel, but she wants high-quality screenings and mandatory quarantine for all passengers who may be carriers. If people want to come to the U.S. from an area where this epidemic is raging, they need to be quarantined in an unaffected area for at least 21 days and probably 25."
Whats Your Ebola Risk MC Questions Instructions: Create 3 interim-style reading questions for the article Whats Your Ebola Risk? You need one MID (main idea) question, one MOW (meaning of words) question, and one SUP (supporting details). Each question also needs 4 answers to choose from (a-d multiple choice responses). Use the chart below to help you create the questions:
MID MOW SUP -Correct answer includes key idea of paragraph -Distracting answers should seem right (based on details) Question stems: The main idea of paragraph ____ is Paragraph ___s main idea can best be described as
-Correct answer is a paraphrase of the word that makes most sense in context -Distractors should include alternate definitions of the word or things that sound right Question stems: The meaning of _____ can best be defined as _____ in line ___ is best defined as:
-Correct answer is either a detail from the reading, or the INCORRECT detail from a list of correct ones -Distractors should include things that sound like they are from the reading, but are not quite there Question stems: According to paragraph ___... All of the following are true in paragraph ____ (lines ____) EXCEPT:
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