International answer and steady scientific information against a worrying epidemics: the ebola virus

Abstract

Background: the recent World Health Organization pronouncement on the situation generated in Africa by the ebola virus epidemics leads to the immediate actions of the health care world community. The need of scientific information and constant training of the medical sciences professionals give reason for the theme updating.
Aim: to identify sites, documents and references published during the last 10 years on the disease behavior, main diagnosis and therapeutic elements.
Methods: we carried out a bibliographic and documental review in Internet. We consulted several data bases as Hinari, Pubmed, Medline, Cochrane, SCielo and Scopus. We chose 15 references and sites with scientific information on the theme, with an updating level of more than 70 % of them published in the last 5 years. We used the key words ebola virus, epidemiology, prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, treatment and the Boolean operators “and” “or”.
Outcomes: we found few articles in Cuban scientific journals. Most of the articles were related with therapeutics; we did not find enough information about the disease prevention. We identified the sites that should be constantly consulted by health professionals to keep a good level of updating on the theme.
Conclusions: the World Health Organization site and the one created by Infomed in Cuba are essential references to keep updating on ebola virus. It is essential the role played by the international health care community and the governments, in damage reducing and disease spread avoiding.