Understanding Ebola Virus Disease

该项目将开发和传播一个名为“了解埃博拉病毒病”（UEVD）的在线教育资源。其目的是为用户提供互动式学习体验，帮助他们对影响埃博拉病毒感染、传播和管理的因素有基本的了解。对当前埃博拉疫情的非理性恐惧主张开发教育资源，帮助人们更好地了解病毒的生物学。UEVD材料将包括知识前测和后测。这些测试将使研究人员能够识别用户对病毒感染的误解，特别是埃博拉病毒，并使他们能够评估UEVD材料如何解决这些误解。UEVD资源的核心是病毒感染的交互模型。用户可以操纵四到六个变量，这些变量与病毒感染和传播相关的重要概念有关。病毒互动将侧重于目标人群的易感性、病毒的传播性、毒力因子和疾病传播。用户将能够将埃博拉病毒的生物学与麻疹和流感等其他类型的病毒进行比较和对比。 这一教育资源的目标是帮助用户对毒力因子和传播性有基本的了解，以便他们能够更客观地了解病毒感染的风险。 有了这些知识，用户可能不那么害怕像埃博拉这样的罕见感染，而更关心像流感这样的常见感染，流感每年在美国造成数万人死亡。知情的公众也更有可能以同情和同情的态度对待应对病毒性疾病的人。

This project will develop and disseminate an online educational resource called Understanding Ebola Virus Disease (UEVD). The objective is to provide users with an interactive learning experience that helps them acquire a basic understanding of factors that influence infection, transmission, and management of Ebola virus disease. Irrational fears about the current Ebola outbreak argue for the development of educational resources that can help people better understand the biology of viruses. The UEVD materials will include a knowledge pretest and posttest. These tests will allow the researchers to identify misconceptions users have about virus infection, and Ebola disease in particular, and enable them to assess how well the UEVD materials address these misconceptions. The core of the UEVD resource is an interactive model of virus infection. Users can manipulate four to six variables that relate to important concepts associated with viral infection and spread. The virus interactive will focus on the susceptibility of the target population, the transmissibility of the virus, virulence factors, and disease spread. Users will be able to put the biology of the Ebola virus into perspective by comparing and contrasting it to other types of viruses such as measles and influenza. The goal of this educational resource is to help users acquire a basic understanding of virulence factors and transmissibility so that they can appreciate the risks of virus infection more objectively. Armed with such knowledge, users may be less fearful of rare infections like Ebola and more concerned with common infections like influenza, which kills tens of thousands of people annually in the United States. An informed public is also more likely to treat people coping with viral diseases with empathy and compassion.