Arooj Akhtar¹, Eyerusalem Befkadu¹, Paramita Basu^1,, Priyank Kumar^1,

On August 8, 2014, the World Health Organization established that the current Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemic is a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), urging the global community to orchestrate their efforts to control the outbreak. As of November 12, 2014 the World Health Organization reported that at least 5,160 lives have been lost to the virus. We conducted a literature review in order to determine the underlying factors contributing to the emergence, rapid spread, and uncontrolled nature of the current virus outbreak, the first to display a distinct epicenter in West Africa. The global community’s reaction to Ebola has been marked by fear. Fear of both the unknown nature of the virus, and knowing that we have made limited efforts in strengthening our arsenal of Ebola fighting treatment options. We explore novel treatment and precautionary approaches in an attempt to shift the response from reactive to proactive in our efforts to battle Ebola.

Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), seasonal distribution, deforestation, socio-political infrastructure, micronutrient deficiency, vaccines, treatment