The Deadly Ebola Virus Essay

Ebola is classified as a type of viral hemorrhagic fever, filivirus. The natural host for Ebola is still yet to be defined, but in most cases of a viral hemorrhagic fever, arthropods and rodents, such as ticks and mosquitoes, are the common hosts.

Historically Ebola has had a serious impact on human health and hygiene and still does due to the fact of no vaccine or treatment being discovered, but thanks to improvements in scientific and medical knowledge the virus itself is now controllable.

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 the United States was hit with a force far more deadly and dangerous than many threats received. The ebola virus took the world by storm after it was carried to the United States and spread by people who had visited West Africa. This virus was all the more deadly as it often took hours for any symptoms to occur. In this time the Center for Disease Control spent much time and many resources looking for answers to the many questions they had. Under the time constraint and scrutinizing public, they had to determine what ebola was, what it did and its effects on the general public.

The control monkeys were never injected with the Ebola virus; they were placed across the room from the sick monkeys. After the control monkeys were found to be infected with Ebola it was proposed that “Ebola drifted across a room. Most likely the control monkeys inhaled it into their lungs” (Preston 93-94). Finding out that Ebola was possibly spread through the air posed as a large problem as Karl Johnson explained to Preston in an interview, “If Ebola had spread through the air, the world would be a very different place today… It would have been exceedingly difficult to contain that virus if it had had any major respiratory component” (Preston 121). The Ebola strain that Johnson encountered appeared to not be spread through the air, however there is substantial evidence that other strains are. “In 2012 Canadian researchers found that Ebola Zaire, which is involved in the current outbreak, was passed from pigs to monkeys in the air” (Cohen 1). Ebola is aggressive enough that some researchers believe it is able to enter a person’s bloodstream through a small scrape (Preston 142-143). Ebola was actually spread by medical staff in some areas such as the Yambuku Hospital where nuns used five needles a day for hundreds of their patients. This mixed blood and gave Ebola the opportunity to spread (Preston 102). It

The Ebola virus is deadly, but it will become a major threat to humanity if and only if it becomes airborne and a vaccine is not developed.

virus did not scare anyone. It was quite logical in fact. After all, it was just the common cold. It

While Ebola is not an airborne virus, it can be transmitted through direct contact with an infected person’s fluids, such as blood, urine, vomit, sweat, semen and sexual contact (Nevins, 2014). With these deadly symptoms and ease of transmission, the Ebola virus can quickly wipe out an entire community. Yet, scientists have found that the severity of the disease in humans varies widely, from rapid fatality to mild illness or even asymptomatic response, further complicating the ability to quickly identify infected patients and reduce the possibility of transmission (Kolata, 2014). Moreover, the virus has different strains and mutates according to the specific environmental conditions in which it exists (Peters et al., 1991).

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.

Ebola is one of the most deadly diseases known to man. The mortality rate of Ebola ranges from 25% to 90% (World Health Organization [WHO], 2014; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2010; Cowart, 2014). There is no cure for Ebola and no vaccine to prevent its spread (WHO, 2014; CDC, 2010; Cowart, 2014). The virus itself is spreads between organisms through bodily fluids, such as blood and vomit, which are shed by an infected individual (WHO, 2014; CDC, 2010). These fluids typically carry a large viral load, or number of cells that harbor the virus (WHO, 2014; CDC, 2010). The virus is spread when infectious bodily fluids come into contact with mucous membranes (WHO, 2014; CDC, 2010). As such, infection can occur when infectious fluids enter a cut, enter intravenously, or encounter mucous membranes, such as the eyes, nose, or mouth (WHO, 2014; CDC, 2010).

got sick and died. This outbreak infected 318 with a death rate of 93% (Le

Ashton Nicholas SPC 205 Informative Speech Outline Ebola Virus General Purpose: To inform. Specific Purpose: To explain to my audience research and facts about what Ebola is, what the symptoms and treatments are, how Ebola is spread, and where Ebola is in the world today. Central Idea: Research is helping us to discover and learn all the facts about Ebola. Introduction I. Attention-Getter:

The Ebola virus is the most feared virus of our time. What exactly is Ebola? Ebola is a viral hemorrhagic fever actually named after the River Ebola in Zaire, Africa, where it was first discovered. It belongs to a genus of ribonucleic viruses called filoviruses, under the family Filofiridae, which are characterized by their filament-like (thread-like) appearance with a little hook or loop at the end. Only five viruses exist in this family: the not-as-deadly Marburg, and the four Ebola strains: Ebola Zaire, Ebola Sudan, Ebola Tai and Ebola Reston. The latter

The Ebola virus was discovered in 1976 near the Ebola River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However many doctors believe they outbreak may have started from the eating of bats and apes or other primates. The bat naturally holds the virus and primates catch it by eating the infected bush meat or eating anything the bat may have defecated on.

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