Ebola Background

Ebola is an infectious virus that

originates from Western Africa. It was
first found in the Conga in 1976. Since
then there have been many outbreaks,
the most recent was in 2014, most of
them have started from people
handling infected bush meat including:

Ebola Virus

bats, primates, porcupines, and forest

antelope. Ebola is transmitted through
bodily fluids and is a hemorrhagic
fever, this means that it causes
uncontrolled internal and external
bleeding which can lead to
transmission. Ebola is extremely deadly
with a death rate ranging from 40%90% so it is vital that it is prevented
from becoming an epidemic. One of
the best ways to prevent its spread is
through education. Please read this

Dylan Ellis

Symptoms
Symptoms appear 2-21 days
after exposure to the virus.
After 21 days if no symptoms
develop then there is no chance

of developing the disease. If a

person does not have symptoms
then they cannot pass on the
disease, symptoms include:
fever, headache, muscle pain,
weakness, fatigue, diarrhea,
stomach pain, vomiting, sore
throat, rash and unexplained
hemorrhage/bruising.

Treatment

Prognosis

There is no approved treatment for the

Ebolavirus. There are a few
experimental vaccines but none have
been confirmed as treatments or cures.
With Ebola it is very important to treat
the individual symptoms as they arise.
Some of the symptoms can be fatal in
and of themselves, such as
dehydration and infection from other
diseases. Ebola causes vomiting and
diarrhea both of which can cause
dehydration very quickly so IVs are
used to replace fluids and electrolytes
lost due to diarrhea and vomiting.
Ebola also leads to a suppressed
immune system so many victims
contract other infectious diseases
while they have Ebola. It is important
to treat these individual infections as
they arise because some of them can
be fatal due to the suppressed immune
system of those who have the
Ebolavirus.

Ebola has a death rate that ranges

from 50%-90% depending on the
strain of the virus. The first symptoms
to develop are fever, fatigue, muscle
pain, headache, and sore throat. These
are followed by vomiting, diarrhea,
and rash. Next the more severe
symptoms begin to develop, these
include impaired kidney and liver
function. There is also typically
internal and external bleeding, oozing
from the gums and blood in stool. It
can be difficult to distinguish Ebola
from other diseases like malaria,
typhoid, and meningitis so it is vital to
be tested as soon as symptoms
develop to ensure it isn't transmitted
to other people. There are many test
that can be conducted to be sure that it
is Ebola, these include: antibodycapture enzyme-linked
immunosorbent assay (ELISA),
antigen-capture detection tests, serum
neutralization test, reverse
transcriptase polymerase chain
reaction (RT-PCR) assay, electron
microscopy, and virus isolation by cell
culture.