A History of the Ebola Virus Essay example

Ebola, a virus which acquires its name from the Ebola River (located in Zaire, Africa), first emerged in September 1976, when it erupted simultaneously in 55 villages near the headwaters of the river. It seemed to come out of nowhere, and resulted in the deaths of nine out of every ten victims. Although it originated over 20 years

Ebola is the virus Ebolavirus (EBOV), a viral genus, and the disease Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), a viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF). The virus is named after the Ebola River Valley in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), which is near the site of the first recognized outbreak in 1976 at a mission hospital run by Flemish nuns. It has remained largely obscure until 1989 when several widely publicized outbreaks occurred among

1.A typical virus structure consists of a stand of heredity material, and is surrounded by a coat of protein. The shapes of a virus include helical, polyhedral, spherical, and bacteriophage. The Ebola virus doesn’t look like any of these virus shapes. It’s a long strand. The size of a cell is a lot larger than the size of a virus. The book states, “the lethal airborne dose was fairly small: as small as 500 infectious virus particles.” Therefore, in order for a virus to become airborne, it has to be extremely small. Viruses, are smaller than bacteria and cells combined.

This is important because Ebola is a very deadly disease that directly attacks your immune system and causes internal bleeding. Ebola kills 6 out of 10 people and even though many more people die every year from malaria and the flu, ebola is a very serious disease that spreads pretty

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

The filovirus Ebola consists of 4 families: Marburg, Ebola Zaire, Ebola Sudan, and Ebola Reston. It is a rather simple virus in structure; each contain a single strand RNA strand and 7 different proteins, 3 which are only slightly understood and 4 that are completely unknown. The virus harms the immune system like the HIV virus, but Ebola causes an explosive attack. The virus is associated with the measles and mumps family, pneumonia viruses, parainfluenza viruses which include colds, and respiratory system related viruses. Unlike common viruses which are ball-shaped, Ebola’s shape represents that similar to a shepherd’s crook, a long snake-like thread that looks like a worm. Because the Ebola virus has a distinct structure, it has been classified as a “thread virus” in its own family of viruses, the filoviruses.

Ebola is described by the author in deep detail telling the progression of which it goes through. It starts with a headache and backache and ends with all of your internal organs failing “bleeding out” like Charles Monet. There are four filoviruses: Ebola virus (EBOV), Sudan virus (SUDV), Marburg virus (MARV), and Ravn virus (RAVV). They are all Level 4 biohazard, which means they are extremely dangerous to humans especially because they are so infectious, have a high death rate, and there are no medicines, treatments, or cures.

Ebola Zaire, arguably the deadliest known virus strain on earth, held a mortality rate up to ninety percent in the past, and is the hottest type of Ebola Viral Diseases. In addition, there are four other types of Ebola species: Ebola Sudan, Ebola Ivory Coast, Bundibugyo ebolavirus, and Ebola Reston. Notably, the earliest of Ebola outbreaks being from Ebola Sudan and Ebola Zaire, both erupted during 1976 in Africa. Previously known as the Ebola haemorrhagic fever, these virus are known to cause tremors and convulsions in its host, resulting in the splattering of blood which is used as its strategy for transmission. Other ways of contracting Ebola is through contact with patient’s bodily fluids and aerosolized secretions in the air. Furthermore, the novel The Hot Zone written by Richard Preston, along with online sources from Gale’s database also indicates that virus outbreaks are partly aided through factors such as close

The Ebola virus needs to find a host cell to be able to replicate and there are 6 steps in the replication cycle that are shared by all viruses. These are attachment, penetration, uncoating, replication, assembly and release.

The resulting symptoms are bleeding, especially in the nose, abdomen, and pericardium. Capillary leakage appears to lead to loss of intravascular volume, bleeding, shock and the acute respiratory disorder seen in fatal cases. Patients basically die of intractable shock. Those with severe illness often have fevers and are delirious, combative and difficult to control.Some victims of the Ebola virus, one out of ten people infected, survive the virus's deadly operations. Due to its self-limiting nature, the Ebola virus is known to sometimes die out within a person before killing the host organism. Just like the history of wars and other social epidemics, the Ebola outbreaks need to be remembered and learned from.

Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) is a severe and often fatal disease that can occur in humans and nonhuman primates (such as monkeys and gorillas). The outbreaks of EVD occur predominantly in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests and where contact with animals is more likely to take place. EVD is transmitted into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals (typically nonhuman primates and fruit bats). Once a human is infected it spreads in the community through skin-to-skin contact, direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected individual, or contact with environments that are contaminated with such fluids. The incubation

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)

The Ebola Virus is an extremely deadly virus found in Africa. There have been multiple outbreaks across Africa and one in the United States. The Ebola virus basically causes uncontrollable bleeding externally and internally. Then your organs become liquefied. This usually results in death(www.encyclopedia.com). The following report contains info on the characteristics and history of the Ebola Virus.

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

Normally infecting fruit bats, the Ebola virus found a mutation allowing it to spread to humans. This virus is an acute and often fatal illness. This virus first erupted in two outbreaks in 1976 (one occurring in Nzara and Sudan, while the other occurred in a village near the Ebola river, where the virus takes its name.) The current outbreak, starting in West Africa with the potential to spread throughout the world,  is  larger and more complex than previous outbreaks. This virus has caused more deaths than all other past Ebola outbreaks combined. With approximately five people infected with the virus every hour in Sierra Leone alone, how far – and how fast – will the Ebola virus go?