Ebola Virus Disease in West Africa — Clinical Manifestations and Management

The cumulative clinical observations of physicians who cared for more than 700 patients with Ebola virus disease in Liberia between August and October of this year support a rational approach to EVD management in resource-limited settings. In resource-limited areas, isolation of the sick from the population at large has been the cornerstone of control of Ebola virus disease (EVD) since the virus was discovered in 1976. 1 Although this strategy by itself may be effective in controlling small outbreaks in remote settings, it has offered little hope to infected people and their families in the absence of medical care. In the current West African outbreak, infection control and clinical management efforts are necessarily being implemented on a larger scale than in any previous outbreak, and it is therefore appropriate to reassess traditional efforts at disease management. Having . . .