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Ebola Research Paper

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Ebola is a rare but deadly virus that causes bleeding inside and outside the body. In 1976, Ebola was first spotted in Sudan and Zaire. The first outbreak of Ebola infected over 284 people. A few months later, the second Ebola virus was found in patients from Yambuku, Zaire, Ebola-Zaire (EBOZ), which infected 318 people. Despite the tremendous effort of experienced and dedicated researchers, Ebola's natural reservoir was never identified. The third strain of Ebola, Ebola Reston (EBOR), was first identified in 1989 when infected monkeys were imported into Reston, Virginia, from Mindanao in the Philippines. Fortunately, the few people who were infected with EBOR (seroconverted) never developed Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF). The last known strain …show more content…

At first it may be hard to differiantie beteen Ebola and many other diseases. Early symptoms of Ebola are similar to influenza, malaria, typhoid fever, fulminant hepatitis, sepsis, nontyphoidal salmonellosis, and various forms of encephalitis, dengue fever, yellow fever, Lassa fever, Marburg, and other hemorrhagic diseases. Since it is quite difficult to diagnosis Ebola the only way to correctly diagnosis is to have laboratory confirmation of Ebola virus. Usually symptoms of Ebola is sudden, with patients showing symptoms within 5 to 12 days Early symptoms can include acute fever, chills, myalgia, head- ache, arthralgia, and anorexia. Nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, hypotension, tachypnea, relative bradycardia, conjunctivitis, conjunctival injection, pharyngitis, and diarrhea, which may be bloody, are other evolving signs. Cutaneous flushing or rashes are also common (World Health Organization 1997). Many women infected with Ebola decide to get abortions because the virus can be passed down to the child. During the later stage of Ebola the illness may become a hemorrhagic issue that consists of epistaxis, hematuria, hematemesis, petechiae, melena, and mucous membrane and conjunctival hemorrhage (World Health Organization 1997). Hemorrhaging usually occurs from the gastrointestinal tract, lungs, and gingiva. Patients who have a strong immune system, their body response to the virus will begin in 7 to 10 days and start a period of slow recovery involving complications such as weakness, fatigue, hepatitis, uveitis, and other clinical sequelae (Borio and others 2002). Patients who do not improve by the 1st week usually experience multiorgan failure and die from hypovolemic shock, with or without blood loss (World Health Organization

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