Ebola

By Jacob Jossart and Brandon Kelly

What is it?
A Viral Hemorrhagic Fever
Often fatal
Attacks monkeys and humans
Caused by infection with a virus of the family
Filoviridae, genus Ebolavirus
Gets inside cells membrane(uknown how), then
uncoats itself and reverese transcriptase, this
transcribes the viral ssRNA into the +ssRNA. This
+ssRNA will be used as the template for the disease
and it eats the cell up using its parts for itself
Attacks lymphatic tissue, allowing it to enter blood




Symptoms
Fever of 101.5 F or greater
Severe headache
Muscle Pain
Diarrhea
Vomiting
Abdominal pain
Appear 2 -21 days after infection
Spreading
Discovered in 1976 near Ebola river in Congo
Natural reservoir host unknown
Most likely spread by bats
Spread through fluids and breaks in the skin
Tools and dirty hospitals are centers for the
spreading
Most likely a problem in Africa due to lack of
medical caution and care, and more animals to
spread the disease
Can not be spread through water and air
Spreading from Africa
Only 3 cases have been recorded in America
These were 3 doctors who caught it in Africa
Emory University Hospital
Since 1976, 250 patients:120 died
Treated with caution, do not want it to spread
in America
Kept in one room isolated

How does it affect ?
Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone
Poor countries, making help hard and less
professional.
Less ability to control spread due to lack of
money and arrangement of people
Can not afford supplies just to feel
comfortable, such as a good toilet and shower.
Prevention
Hard to judge if symptoms are for Ebola
If someone has symptoms, they should be
isolated and doctors should be called
Wear protective clothing
Use infection control measures (sterilization)
The goal is to avoid contact with blood or
secretions of the infected patient.

Possible help
Some have survived, but the survival cause is
unknown
Not cure yet, only treatment: Providing body
fluids and electrolytes
Maintaining oxygen status and blood pressure
Treat as symptoms come
ZMapp- possible cure, works on monkeys
Hard to cure because molecules are small,
disease is deadly, and they produce few proteins
making tracing the disease harder.



Why are we interested
A large outbreak, similar to black plague
Reminds us of movies were disease takes over
the world, this is interesting and scary
We want to see why Ebola is on the news
We want to see if these people are going to
get help and how

ZMapp
Composed of three humanized monoclonal
antibodies manufactured in plants, specifically
Nicotiania
Combination of Mapp and Zmab drugs
FDA not yet approved for humans
Works on monkeys up to 5 days after infected


Our questions
How does ZMapp attack the virus?
When will they use ZMapp?
How do bats spread the disease?
How does it enter the cells?


Sources
www.usatoday.com - Ebola Zmapp Cure
www.cdc.gov - Ebola
www.mappbio.com - Zmapp Informational
Sheet