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Ebola
A virus of the filovirus
class, which causes the Ebola hemorrhagic fever, one of the deadliest infectious diseases
known. An Ebola outbreak it is definitely a major disaster, wherever it occurs.
Filoviruses are notable for their long
filaments, or threads, that are clearly seen when the viruses are viewed under an electron
microscope. The first recorded emergence of the Ebola virus was in July 1976, in a cotton
factory in the town of Nzara in Sudan. The mortality rate in the resulting epidemic
reached 70 percent as it spread eastward to the town of Maridi, Sudan, and to the local
hospital there, and then subsided. Although the first human to contract the disease was
identified, it has not been determined how the virus was transmitted to him. The natural
reservoir — an animal population in which a virus resides — was not located, nor
was the virus isolated. The virus is thought to be resident in certain groups of monkeys,
and it sometimes crosses species lines to infect humans. Increased mobility by modern
transportation can also contribute to the rapid spread of infectious diseases. Among
humans, the disease is spread by direct contact with infected blood, organs, or
secretions, or by means of contaminated medical equipment such as scalpels and hypodermic
needles and syringes. It does not appear to be spread by casual contact. Among monkeys,
however, there is evidence that the Ebola virus can be spread through the air.
The onset of the disease is rapid:
symptoms can occur within two to 21 days after infection. Once symptoms begin to show,
death can occur within days or after about a week at most. The first symptom is usually a
headache, followed by steady fever. The virus causes an unusual combination of clots and
hemorrhages. The clots lodge throughout the body, filling capillaries and shutting off
blood to parts of the internal organs, especially to the brain, liver, and spleen. This
causes the affected organs to begin to decay. Blood begins to leak through the capillaries
and into the tissues, but by this point the blood will not clot. The connective tissues
lose their elasticity and become mushy. The body's internal cavities fill with blood, and
blood leaks from all orifices and through the skin, which becomes easily ripped. As the
disease progresses, both humans and monkeys develop a fixed and expressionless face,
probably as a result of hemorrhages within the brain. Death comes from excessive blood
loss and shock. The Ebola virus saturates all of the fluids flowing from the body. Ebola
hemorrhagic fever is the third deadliest infectious disease known, after HIV, which causes
AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), and rabies, which has an effective vaccine.
There is no vaccine against the Ebola virus, nor is there a cure once the disease has been
contracted. Effective hygiene and standard aseptic medical procedures can limit the spread
of the disease.
Related software:
Clinical Virology
(Cd-Rom For Windows and Macintosh, Individual Version).
Related videos:
Ebola Syndrome.
Ebola - Plague
Fighters.
Related books:
A Dancing Matrix:
How Science Confronts Emerging Viruses.
Antiviral Drug
Resistance.
Applied
Epidemiology: Theory to Practice.
Clinical Virology.
Ebola: A
Documentary Novel of Its First Explosion.
Emerging Viruses: AIDS and Ebola: Nature, Accident or Intentional?
Evolution of
Infectious Disease.
Marburg and Ebola
Viruses (Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology , Vol 235).
The Invisible
Invaders; Viruses and the Scientists Who Pursue Them.
Viral Infections
of Humans: Epidemiology & Control.
Virus Ground
Zero: Stalking the Killer Viruses With the Center for Disease Control.
Virus Hunter:
Thirty Years of Battling Hot Viruses Around the World.
Viruses, Plagues,
and History.
Click
here for more
books.
Further info:
Ebola
Information Headquarters.
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