The Main Symptoms And Harm Caused By Ebola Virus

Ebola causes problems with how your blood clots, that is why it is called the hemorrhagic fever. The problems with blood clotting lead to internal bleeding. There have been six different strains found. The types of strains are the Zaire virus, sudan virus, Taï Forest virus, Bundibugyo virus, Reston virus, and Bombali virus. The deadliest strain is the Zaire Ebola virus. Ebola is an RNA which stands for ribonucleic acid. RNA is a single-stranded chain of cells that processes protein. When RNA is copied there are many more mistakes than when DNA is copied. This means Ebola has a high mutation rate.

The sudan virus is the only strain of ebola that has a potential cure. While there are other drugs being tested for all strains together there is one therapy that is consistently killing the sudan strain. There is an antibody that was tested on mice that killed the strains of the sudan virus. But in humans our immune system would not recognize the antibody and push it out. Scientists are working on making a version for humans right now.

One of the first outbreaks of ebola was in Sudan in 1976. The strain was the Sudan ebolavirus. There were 284 cases reported and 151 deaths were reported. 53% of people who had ebola died. The outbreak is believed to have started in a cotton factory where workers were infected. It was spread when people started to go to the hospital and many healthcare professionals were infected with ebola.

The second outbreak of 1976 was in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The strain of ebola was the Zaire ebolavirus. There were 318 reported cases and 280 deaths were reported. 88% of people who had ebola died. The outbreak started when giving injections for malaria and the contaminated needles transmitted the disease to 318 people. There were only 38 reported survivors.

The next big outbreak of ebola was in the Democratic Republic of the Congo again. The strain was still the Zaire ebolavirus. There were 315 reported cases and 254 deaths. 81% of people with ebola died. The outbreak began with a charcoal maker in the forest. Ebola spread through families and hospitals. Once the ebola was identified the health care providers were required to were face masks, gloves, and gowns. When they started to use these items transmission in the healthcare system stopped.

The largest outbreak of ebola was in 2014. The outbreaks were in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone which was also called the West African Epidemic. The strand was the Zaire ebolavirus. There were 28,610 reported cases and 11,308 deaths reported. 39% of people that had ebola died. The outbreak started with cases in the southeastern region of Guinea. Not long after there were reported cases of ebola in Liberia and Sierra Leone. It was difficult to diagnosed stop the spread of the disease because of a poor public health system. In august of 2014 The World Health Organization declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. This lead to 4 reported cases in the United States and 1 death.

The most recent outbreak was in The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. The number of cases is still ongoing and so are the deaths. On August 1, 2018 The DRC declared the outbreak. On June 11, 2019 Uganda confirmed the first case of Ebola related to the outbreak. But, there has not been another reported case in Uganda since June 12, 2019. The center for disease control has been assisting both governments on infection control to prevent it from spreading further.

Ebola is not an airborne disease. You get ebola by coming into contact with infected bodily fluids from someone who is dead or alive. You can also get it from using infected needles or getting bit by bats or apes that carry the disease. When you get ebola symptoms will not show up right away. You cannot spread ebola to anyone until symptoms start to appear. One symptom of Ebola is bleeding of the mouth this occurs because as ebola spreads through your body it damages the immune system and organs. It causes levels of blood clotting cells to drop and that leads to uncontrollable bleeding.

Symptoms of ebola are:

• a fever greater than 101.5 degrees Fahrenheit
• muscle pain
• severe headache
• weakness
• diarrhea
• vomiting
• abdominal pain.
• Some test that can be ran to diagnose ebola are:
• virus isolation by cell culture
• Antibody-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
• Serum neutralization test
• Antigen-capture detection tests
• Electron microscopy
• Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assay.

There is no known cure for all the strains of ebola but there are ways to prevent it. You can prevent ebola by not getting where ebola is found. But if you are in an area where Ebola is found, avoid bats, monkeys, chimpanzees, and gorillas since those animals can transmit it to humans. The way health care providers avoid contracting ebola is by wearing masks, goggles, gloves, and gowns when they have a suspected ebola patient. If you do contract ebola doctors will use fluids, electrolytes, oxygen, blood pressure medication, blood transfusions, treatment for other infection, and blood clot medications to manage the virus.

If a person survives ebola there are some effects from the virus. Ebola can reside in semen for up to seven weeks. People that have survived may have inflammatory problems in the joints. The recovery times depend on what strain and how bad the infection was. Survivors are thought to be immune from contracting the same strain twice but researcher are not sure how long this lasts. When a person survives ebola they are left with ebola fighting antibodies. If the person does survive, he or she should consider giving blood. If they decided to they could be apart of the cure.

If you live in the United States or other first world Countries you are probably not going to contract the ebola virus. The United States has the Center for disease control that helps to protect the people from ebola. The U.S. also has the Food and Drug Administration to help test drugs to start to cure the disease. Most of the first world Countries have public health systems that protect the people from the disease. The hospitals also have the proper items for managing symptoms and protecting themselves and others from contracting the virus. Depending on where you live more than likely you do not have to worry about contracting ebola.