Frontline: Outbreak (50 pts)

Watch the following video:  (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/outbreak/)

Answer the following questions:

1. What is suspected to have started the outbreak? Be as specific as possible

for full credit (5 pts)

It started in west Africa. The disease came from bats. People ate them and that’s how it
is believed that it started.

2. What two diseases was Ebola initially mistaken for? Why would this
misclassification be a problem and exacerbate the public health issue? I am
looking for two to three reasons why the misclassification would be a problem.
Consider the information given in your book and the lecture on how
communicable diseases can be controlled.(10 pts)

Malaria and fever due to similar symptoms. This misclassification would be a problem because
you treat each of them differently. Misclassification was also a problem in the beginning. It
undermined the initial spread of the virus.

3. What did past experiences indicate were the three best ways to contain
Ebola? How do these actions help to contain the disease? Be specific for each
method, i.e., give a reasoning for why each method helps to contain the disease.
(10 pts)

Avoid contact with body fluids, avoid burial rituals, and avoid contact with nonhuman
primates and bats, and lastly isolating the ill

4. Name five reasons why the Ebola epidemic spread and was not contained
(there are many more than five that are given throughout the video, but you
only need to name five). These can be related to social, cultural, political or
economic factors. (15 pts)
1. The doctors and nurses were affected by it and could not treat people
 2. hard to know if someone as it at first
3. lack of effective healthcare
4. lack of cleaning
5. lack for government spending

5. What communicable disease control methods did you see observed in the
video? Identify at least three, and give a brief explanation/description of the
control method shown in the video. (10 pts)

Ebola was a public health issue, because it reached different parts of the world. It is a
communicable disease because it is spread from one person to another easily.