Ebola Viral Disease in West Africa: A Threat to Global Health, Economy and Political Stability

Omoleke, Semeeh Akinwale; Mohammed, Ibrahim; Saidu, Yauba

Common clinical manifestations reported in the current outbreak are somewhat different from clinical manifestations in previous outbreaks in Central Africa. 19 These manifestations include fever (usually high grade associated with chills), severe diarrhea and vomiting. Bleeding has not been a consistent finding. Most often, the disease rapidly progresses to multi-systemic involvement with hepatic, renal, respiratory and vascular features. These early non-specific manifestations of the disease may mimic other common infectious diseases including malaria, enteric fever, dysentery, meningitis and other hemorrhagic viral diseases such as Lassa and Maburg or Dengue Fever. These overlapping presentations can cause the disease to be misdiagnosed; a weakness, which may have far reaching implication in terms of disease management and public health in general. In this paper, we reviewed the threats of EVD in the context of globalization, the potential drivers of EVD outbreaks, the societal impact of EVD outbreaks and the research and development (R&D) status for products against EVD.