The Ebola virus, which has been discovered in the late 1970s, is currently one of the most life-threatening diseases in the world. The newest outbreak has already killed more than 5,000 people in West Africa alone with over 17,000 confirmed cases.
There's no cure yet, although vaccines are on human clinical trial. But if you're going to ask specialists of tropical diseases, a very simple measure can significantly reduce the death toll.
For Dr. Ian Roberts who works in Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London and Dr. Anders Perner, an intensive care specialist from the University of Copenhagen believe that to say there's no effective therapy against Ebola is not 100% accurate.
A simple medical measure such as providing hydration salts to patients in bigger quantities may be one of the solutions needed to drive the total death toll down.
A patient who suffers from the virus develops gastrointestinal symptoms including severe diarrhea. This is further aggravated to nausea and vomiting. In the end, the patient becomes dehydrated, which can be very dangerous since it might lead to major organ failure, cardiac arrest, and death.
Meanwhile, providing IV fluids can help maintain the level of sodium found in the bloodstream, preventing the swelling of the brain, which may lead to death or coma.
Nevertheless, even if the latter measure is already implemented, it's still not executed properly as West African countries lack enough healthcare manpower. For example, there are not adequate supply of health workers who can closely monitor the consumption of these fluids and replace them as soon as possible.
These specialists then recommend preparing these IV fluids in large quantities. While they are presently available in 1 liter, those who are in the ground can increase them to 5 liters. Doing this can also limit the exposure of these health workers to patients, so the risk of infection among them may also go down.
