The Ebola Virus

The control monkeys were never injected with the Ebola virus; they were placed across the room from the sick monkeys. After the control monkeys were found to be infected with Ebola it was proposed that “Ebola drifted across a room. Most likely the control monkeys inhaled it into their lungs” (Preston 93-94). Finding out that Ebola was possibly spread through the air posed as a large problem as Karl Johnson explained to Preston in an interview, “If Ebola had spread through the air, the world would be a very different place today… It would have been exceedingly difficult to contain that virus if it had had any major respiratory component” (Preston 121). The Ebola strain that Johnson encountered appeared to not be spread through the air, however there is substantial evidence that other strains are. “In 2012 Canadian researchers found that Ebola Zaire, which is involved in the current outbreak, was passed from pigs to monkeys in the air” (Cohen 1). Ebola is aggressive enough that some researchers believe it is able to enter a person’s bloodstream through a small scrape (Preston 142-143). Ebola was actually spread by medical staff in some areas such as the Yambuku Hospital where nuns used five needles a day for hundreds of their patients. This mixed blood and gave Ebola the opportunity to spread (Preston 102). It

In 2014, Ebola hemorrhagic fever caused an outbreak in West Africa that officially ended in 2016. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says, “Ebola is a rare and deadly disease caused by infection with one of the Ebola virus species” (“Ebola (Ebola Virus Disease)”). Ebola is caused when a person is in contact with an infected person’s blood or other body fluids. Prevention of contracting the disease include, not touching the dead body of an infected person, not touching body fluids of an infected person, avoiding places infected people are being treated, not touching bats or nonhuman primates

Ebola was and still is a greatly talked about problem. Most people know that it is very contagious. The Ebola virus was first discovered in 1976 near the Ebola river in Congo.The greatest outbreak of Ebola started in Guinea in December 2013.Ebola is a virus with several strains and it can cause the disease Ebola hemorrhagic fever. People that are infected with the Ebola virus get their immune system destroyed and eventually start bleeding internally and externally .Depending on the outbreak from 50 - 90% of the infected die from (EBV)

In late 2013, Ebola virus disease (EVD), a deadly and lethal disease, remerged in West Africa spreading to various countries in the region. In humans, the disease is spread through contact with infected bodily fluids leading to haemorrhagic fever (World Health Organization [WHO], 2015). Originating in 1976 in equatorial Africa, past outbreaks with a few hundred cases had been contained within rural, forested areas in Uganda and Congo (Piot, 2012). In 2014, a total of 20, 206 cases and 7,905 deaths were reported to have occurred in up to eight countries worldwide. Of all cases and deaths resulting from the disease, 99.8% occurred in three neighbouring West African countries - Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea (WHO, 2014). With a case fatality rate from about 50% to 90%, and the absence of preventative or curative therapies, the Ebola epidemic has led to overall global alarm and further elucidated existing global health disparities that perpetuated the epidemic with these West African countries.

Although Ebola caught the world’s attention during the 1995 outbreak in Zaire, the first outbreak occurred in 1976. As the chart below displays, 71% of the people infected died as a result of Ebola during this first outbreak (Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 56 (2): 247-270, 1978). With the current outbreak, this ratio has dramatically decreased as a result of scientific research leading to early detection, but the current infected population is more than 20 times the amount of any previous outbreak and this number continues to grow as no vaccine exists to prevent the disease.

Discovered in 1976 near the Ebola River, Ebola’s first two outbreaks in Sudan and Zaire killed the majority, over half, of the people infected with the disease. Although the natural host reservoir of Ebola has yet to be found, the virus is believed to be animal-borne. A person gets Ebola from a wild animal and then is spread throughout the human population through person-to-person transmission. Healthcare workers providing aide for Ebola victims know that they have a high possibility of contracting the disease because they are exposed to infected blood and body fluids. It could take from two to twenty-one days for the Ebola Virus to show symptoms in humans, and

Ebola could only be transmitted through humans aswell as animals , it can be transmitted through handiling dead or ill humans aswell as chimpanzens , Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with infected body fluids or tissue.

The symptoms of Ebola are a fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, vomiting, stomach pain, sore throat, diarrhea, weakness and occasionally read eyes, rashes, hiccups, and internal and external bleeding and since these symptoms are not specific to Ebola, it is difficult to clinically diagnose and can often be confused with other viruses. The ELISA testing, short for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and virus isolation are a couple of examples of the types of laboratory testing that can be done to diagnose and Ebola patient. Because of how easily it can be transmitted, it is extremely difficult to treat and there is no approved, official treatment. As of now, there is not standard treatment but usually the patients are given fluids and oxygen, have their blood pressure monitored and other necessary treatment. To prevent transmission and spreading the virus, the doctors use extreme caution and wear head to toe protective gear and isolate the patient. Even though the Ebola virus is common in Africa, there has been no known outbreak in the United States. Another difficulty facing scientists and the treatment for Ebola is that the natural reservoir for the virus unknown. The natural reservoir of a virus is it’s long term host of the

The last Ebola outbreak was merely a year ago. This tragedy is fresh; I remember watching the news in fear that Ebola would come to America…until it did. First in Texas then again when two American doctors were flown from Africa to Emory. The idea of Ebola being in my back yard was absolutely terrifying! I couldn’t stop imagining what I’m going to do when I’m a medical student and a biohazard level four patient is in the same hospital as me.

With no cure or vaccination available for the Ebola Disease Virus (EDV) it seems nearly impossible to control. It spreads very much like the common flu except that it is only passed by direct contact so there are no airborne particles yet. Furthermore, the places most at risk are hospitals, funerals, and unreported homes that contain Ebola patients, dead or alive. These places are where the Ebola virus is most easily spread from infected to non-infected. Moreover, what makes containment so difficult is that for the first three to six days people infected with Ebola show no symptoms. As a result, infected people carry the disease to new areas, and once they start showing symptoms they become a risk. Once an area has found a case of Ebola it is then isolated and all borders are closed, but people will still sneak across by land, causing further spread of the disease. However, with the help of analyst they have been able to predict the spread of Ebola over land to a degree. This is especially useful because the only way to stop Ebola at the moment, is to completely stop the spread of it over land and to have prevention packs ready. Through the use of Ebola kits, Study of regional spreading, and with

Ebola is a rare but deadly virus that causes bleeding inside and outside the body. The disease, (also known as the Ebola virus), has a mortality rate of 90% (Nazario, 2014). As the virus spreads through the body, “it damages the immune system and organs” and it “causes levels of blood-clotting cells to drop” (Nazario, 2014). Causing severe, uncontrollable bleeding. However frighteningly deadly the disease is, researchers are greatly reducing the risk of becoming infected through their current knowledge and current research of the disease.

Ebola hosts include humans, non-human primates, and fruit bats. Due to the multiple hosts, Ebola is very hard to control. Ebola can be transmitted to humans through spillover events, that occur when hunting or preparing the meat of an infected animal. Therefore, avoid hunting and consuming the meats of possible hosts of Ebola. Ebola can also be transmitted human-to-human. Transmission of Ebola from human-to-human occurs when a healthy individual comes into contact with the bodily fluids of an Ebola infected person. Transmission may even occur when the sperm or breastmilk of an Ebola survivor is passed to another person. As a result, contact with a person infected with Ebola, living or deceased should be avoided (CDC, 2016).

Since there is no  preventative treatment for the Ebola virus currently and treatment is only experimental, we have to take careful measures in

In 2013, the most widespread epidemic of the Ebola virus in history broke out in West Africa. My first introduction to the virus was in the following year, when popular media and news outlets across the United States picked up the story as Ebola became less of a foreign illness and more of a true threat to the nation’s health in the event that someone happened to carry it back from Africa. For years, I have had a fascination with medicine and pathology, and when I first read the news, my thoughts went first to how the virus had managed to spread so quickly. Now, as the threat has faded from the news and the concerns of the domestic United States, my attention has turned to the nature of the spread of infectious diseases. I was

In our decade, there have been mass discoveries of ways to treat, cure and prevent infectious viruses. If you were to just Google infectious virus breakthroughs the results would almost seem endless. With the recent outbreak of the Ebola virus one might begin to forget or bypass any recent advances. There is no denying that the Ebola virus has already had a tragic effect on our globe, and with our 24-hour news update availability it is often uncertain of what is true and what is untrue.