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The Ebola virus belongs to the family Filoviridae. The Ebola virus is characterized by massive bleeding and destruction of internal tissues. The virus is named after the Ebola river in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa where the virus was first found. Three types of the Ebola virus have been found.
They are named after the places in which they were discovered. Ebola Zaire, Ebola-Sudan, Ebola-Tai forest. The strain Ebola Zaire is the most deadly of the three. The Ebola viruses are mainly found in Central Africa.
Recent outbreaks in humans have been discovered in areas where there arent enough medical supplies or care. This is a problem because the virus strikes in remote areas where access to laboratories is very limited making diagnosing the virus difficult. The first outbreak of the virus was identified 1976 in Zaire and Sudan. In Sudan 284 people were infected and 117 died.
In Zaire there were 318 people infected and of those infected only 38 survived. In 1989 a fourth strain was discovered in a quarantine laboratory in Reston, Virginia that held hundreds of imported Philippine monkeys. Four lab technicians were infected but none of them became ill, though all the monkeys died. The Ebola-Reston was found not to cause disease in humans. In 1995 a large epidemic occurred in Kikwit, Zaire.
There were 315 cases and 244 fatalities. Except for a few small out breaks the Ebola virus infections were not reported again until the fall of 2000 in Uganda. The Ebola virus is transmitted by direct contact of the blood, secretions, organs and semen of infected persons. Handling an ill or dead infected chimpanzee was also proven to be a way of transmission of the disease. Infections frequently occur in hospital care workers or family members who care for a person infected with the Ebola virus. Reusing needles is another way of spreading the virus.
In developing countries like Sudan and Zaire reusing needles is very common because the health care system is under financed. The Ebola virus can be spread through sexual contact. Patients who have recovered from the virus arent likely to spread the infection but, the virus still may be present in the genital secretions shortly after their recovery, therefore making it possible to spread the disease through sexual contact. People at risk of the Ebola virus are persons traveling to areas where Ebola is occurring, hospital staff and family members who care for patients with Ebola, and Central African residents of small towns and rural areas. People of the United States are only at risk if they have had close contact with patients in Zaire who have been infected with the virus. There have been no reports of infected persons of the country of Zaire leaving.
The Zairian government has quarantined all victims in the affected areas and restricted movement of people in and out of these areas. The symptoms of the Ebola virus are fever, sever headaches, weakness, and muscle aches. These symptoms are followed by vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, inflammation of the throat and mucous membranes, bleeding from body openings and often destruction of internal tissues. The onset of the symptoms is usually very sudden and progress quickly to extreme exhaustion, dehydration and death. Time from exposure to the disease and onset of the illness is usually five to ten days.
The time from the onset of illness until death is seven to ten days. The mortality rate of Ebola ranges from 60 - 88 percent. It is believed that many of the victims of the virus die from the destruction of the internal tissues. Victims are diagnosed by laboratory tests on blood. Once a patient is diagnosed with Ebola patients are treated with supportive therapy. This treatment is balancing the patients fluids and electrolytes, maintaining oxygen and blood pressure and treating them for infections.
Many of the victims of the virus are severely dehydrated and are given liquids intravenously. An infected person is isolated by the barrier technique. This technique is done by doctors and nurses wearing gowns, masks, gloves and goggles when caring for patients. The patients visitors are restricted, disposable materials are removed from the room and burned, and all hard surfaces are sterilized with sanitizer. Currently there are no cures or vaccines for the Ebola virus. However near the end of an outbreak in Zaire blood from patients was transfused into ill victims to transfer anti-bodies that might neutralize the Ebola virus and destroy infected cells.
This procedure has been successful but trials have to be conducted to confirm the effectiveness and safety of the procedure.
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