Every headline today has read the same thing: "First diagnosed case of Ebola in the U.S." Yes, you read that right, that African disease that people have been talking about for a while has now jumped the Atlantic and landed in good ol' Dallas, Texas.
Of course the whole school started freaking out when the news broke, but no one freaked out quite as much as all the students who have taken or are currently taking microbiology here at TCU. Right now we are reading the Hot Zone, a book all about the original outbreaks of Ebola in Africa and the severity of the virus strand. We are just halfway through the book now and what we have learned about the disease scares us all to death. One day we're learning about a horribly deadly disease that is NOT in the U.S., and then the next day the Center for Disease Control is reporting that this disease is not only in the U.S., but its in the city just 45 minutes away from campus. A direct quote from one of my friends in my micro class: "That makes me want to cry". We have read hundreds of pages about what the virus can do, and how there is no foolproof cure or vaccine for it either. And now its here.
Ebola has been all over the news for a while now, but it wasn't until microbiology that I actually learned about what the disease does to the body and the long history of it. And now, everyone else wants to know what we have learned. At dinner I was answering questions about how Ebola is spread (fluid transmission), where the virus came from (Ebola river in Africa), and how it most likely first got to humans (through monkeys). I also had to explain that a person is only infectious once they have started exhibiting the symptoms (which the Dallas man was not while on his flight home, meaning it won't spread through the airplane).
I love when what you learn in class can be directly related to something going on around the world right now. The learning connection makes it all seem so much more real and allows you to see a purpose to what you are learning. In this case, Ebola is not a disease that has come and gone, it is still clearly a problem, and as a future healthcare professional, I am going to need to understand what the virus can do.
We've been asked to blog about our other learning experiences outside of Literature & Civilizations II, and the whole story of Ebola has definitely been a learning experience, from helping me with my studies in microbiology to simply educating me on what is happening in the global healthcare community. I've learned what the Center for Disease Control does to combat these viruses so they don't become and epidemic in the U.S. and how easily some diseases can be spread if not diagnosed and quarantined.
If you are at all interested in Ebola and curious what its history is, I highly recommend you pick up the Hot Zone by Richard Preston. It is a very interesting read that really helped me to understand what is happening in Africa and now the U.S. regarding disease outbreaks. Now don't worry y'all, yes Ebola is in Dallas, but the likelihood of it being spread is actually very low because the patient was quarantined very soon after exhibiting symptoms. That may or may not give you peace of mind, but hey at least we don't go to SMU.
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