Ebola Paranoia

Lately, everyone has been extremely worried about a disease that’s been in Africa for awhile, but it just now making an appearance in the United States. That disease is Ebola. Ebola is a disease that in the later stages causes it's victims to bleed both internally and externally. Most of the time, the early symptoms are a lot like that of the common cold. A fever, sore throat, headache etc. 

The first reports of Ebola being present in the US were of Thomas Eric Duncan, a  Liberian who came to the United States to visit family in Dallas. Duncan passed away from the Ebola virus on October 8, but not before he transferred the disease to two nurses that were working his case during his stay at the hospital. Both nurses, Nina Pham and Amber Vinson tested positive for the Ebola virus days after complaining of a fever. 

Ebola is terrifying people around the nation frankly because of the fact that we have absolutely no idea how to cure it and it can be spread so quickly and in so many different ways. It’s also scary the fact that the early symptoms can easily be mistaken for  just the common flu and can be misdiagnosed unless medical  professionals are made aware of any previous exposure.

Now we have the big debate over the fact of pets. Many people think that pets are transferring the virus somehow. When nurse Nina Pham was diagnosed, her dog was put into quarantine and now they are debating whether they should put the dog to sleep so they don’t have to possibly risk the transfer of the virus to other people. This news has brought so many people into the debate such as animal rights activists who are trying to keep the dog as well as any other pets from being “murdered.”

It’s really sad that it has to go one way or the other. We either have to end the life of an innocent animal in order to eliminate risk, and if we don’t then we take the chance of losing the lives of many innocent people. So it all comes down to the one hard choice of which to choose. I think that the people in a position of power will choose the innocent lives of humans over innocent animals any day, but either decision they make will have people against it and leave people upset.

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