Symptoms And Treatment Of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever

In 2003 a vaccine using an adenoviral vector carrying the Ebola spike protein was tested on crab-eating macaques. The monkeys were challenged with the virus twenty-eight days later, and remained resistant.

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.

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.

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.

The virus on entering the body will target specific cells such as those of the liver, immune system and the endothelial lining of the blood vessels.

The filovirus family encompasses two genera: Ebolavirus and Marburgvirus; note that filoviruses are zoonotic, and have recently been traced to some species of African bats (CDC 2014). Currently, there are four species of ebolavirus that cause disease in humans: Ebola virus, Sudan virus, Tai Forest virus, and Bundibugyo virus (CDC 2015 B, 1). For the purposes of this scenario, Ebola virus will be the agent of focus and use. Symptoms of Ebola virus infection range from common illness characteristics, such as fever and fatigue, to the more detrimental characteristics of unexplained bleeding, vomiting, diarrhea, and body pains; symptoms can appear anywhere from two days to three weeks after exposure (CDC 2015 B, 1). Transmission of infection occurs through direct contact between an individual’s mucous membranes or broken skin and body fluids of an infected person (CDC 2015 A). Body fluids can include sweat, saliva, blood, semen, and urine, amongst several others. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated that “Although … the viruses display some capability of infection through small-particle aerosols, airborne spread among humans has not been clearly demonstrated”

The standard treatment for Ebola is still limited to supportive therapy as no vaccines are yet available for clinical use. The supportive therapy consists of balancing the patient’s fluids and electrolytes, maintaining the patient’s oxygen status and blood pressure, and treating the patient for any complicating infections. Treatment from the day the virus is contracted is important but extremely challenging due to the fact that Ebola is very difficult to diagnose in its early stages of infection. However, if a person has the early symptoms of Ebola and there is reason to believe that Ebola should be considered it is extremely important that the patient is isolated

As with any infectious disease, whether it originates from a virus, bacterium, or fungi, there is the possibility that it will become an epidemic. For centuries, deadly diseases have threatened to infect and possibly eradicate mankind. The Ebola virus, which causes an extremely fatal hemorrhagic fever, is considered to be one of the most aggressive contagions in the world. The Ebola virus is a member of a family of RNA viruses known as, “Filoviridae” and is composed of multiple distinct subspecies (Bausch et al. 2007). It causes Ebola Virus Disease, a fairly new disease that plagues multiple poor countries within Africa. The virus mainly attacks the lymphatic system, but also severely damages the reproductive and reticuloendothelial systems. The Ebola virus disease causes muscle pain, weakness, limited kidney and liver function and extreme blood loss due to failure of blood clotting.

The origin of the outbreak was in a country called Guinea. Guinea is located in a continent called Africa in the Northern Hemisphere. The virus then spread to one of the countries that boarder Guinea, Sierra Lionne. After Ebola had spread to Sierra Lionne it then went further south and went to Liberia. In 2014 Sierra Lionne and Liberia became the main concentrated areas of Ebola, it also went to Nigeria and The Democratic Republic Congo. After it hit these three countries it then dispersed to 3 more continents. Ebola was Concentric in Western Africa. Ebola dispersed into different continents where the disease clustered into little groups around the world. As of September 22 2014, the outbreak had reached five African countries including Guinea,

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

EHV is a severe and often fatal disease caused by the ebolavirus. It has an incubation period of 2 days to 3 weeks, during which the patient is not contagious. The patient will become contagious when the first symptoms appear, namely fever, sore throat, muscle pain and headaches, followed by vomiting, diarrhea, decreased kidney and liver function, and finally, internal and external bleeding. The virus can be from wild animals, as well as through human to human interaction. To be specific, contact with bodily fluids (such as blood, urine and feces) is required for transmission (World Health Organization (WHO) Media Centre, 2014). The average fatality rate of EHV through history has been roughly 50%, but it varies greatly from outbreak to outbreak. In this most recent outbreak, there have been 4033 deaths out of 4656 laboratory confirmed cases, for a fatality rate of 86.6%. This includes 2 cases in the United States (US), one of which ended with the patient from Dallas, Texas, succumbing to the disease (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). At the moment, there is no licensed and regulated treatment or vaccine for the diseases. However, several treatments (blood, immunological and drug) and 2 vaccines are undergoing clinical trials as the world’s medical community rushes to find a way to end and prevent the epidemic. Currently, the only course of action for patients with EHV is hydration, and symptom-based treatment (World

THIRD POINT: There is no FDA approved vaccine currently available for Ebola. It is very important that everyone practices careful hygiene. Always wash hands with soap and

What if you or someone you knew caught a virus that no one knew how to cure, they were highly contagious, there was a high chance that they could die, and there is nothing at all you can do about it. What would you do? Would you take drastic measure to stay informed or would you sit around and do nothing? Today you will hear an explanation of what causes Ebola, what it does, and how you can prevent it.

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