#8 Ebola Virus (English)

Ebola Virus

What is Ebola Virus?

Ebola Virus

 Ebola Virus is one of the viruses within the genus Ebolavirus. It is formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever. Which causes a severe and often fatal hemorrhagic fever in humans and other mammals. It was first appeared in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks, one in Nzara, Sudan, and the other in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Cogo. And took its name from from the Ebola River. The natural reservoir of Ebola virus is believed to be bats, particularly fruit bats, and it is transmitted between humans and from animals to humans through body fluids. The Ebola Virus genome is a single-stranded RNA approximatelz 19,000 nucleotides long.

Ebola Virus Genome

* How long is 1 nucleotide?
 - The size of 1 nucleotide is 0.34nm.

Why is it dangerous?

 The average Ebola Virus case fatality rate is around 50%. Case fatality rates have varied from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks. The targets in the body are hepatocytes, functional cells of the liver, endothelial cells, which is from the lining of the blood vessels, and phagocytes, blood cells that absorb foreign particles. It wrecks the immune system, causes heavy bleeding inside the body, and damages almost every organ.


How does Ebola Virus spread in the body?

Fruit Bats

 Ebola Virus fuses with cells lining respiratory tract, eyes or body cavities. The virus's genetic contents are released into the vell. Then this genetic material takes over cell machinery to replicate itself. Lastly, new copies of the virus are produced and released back into system.

What are the Early symptoms?

 Symptoms may appear anywhere from 2 to 21 days after exposure to Ebola Virus, but the average is 8 to 10 days. The early symptoms are fever, weakness, headache, stomach pain, fatigue, lack of appetite, diarrhea, unexplained bleeding, vomiting, and joint & muscle aches.

How do you prevent Ebola Virus?

 You can't get Ebola from casual contact, like sitting nect to an infected person. Air, food, and water don't carry the virus. But kissing or sharing food or a drink with somone who has Ebola could be a risk, since you might get his or her saliva in your mouth. Avoid infected people, their body fluids, and the bodies of anyone who has dies from the disease. Avoid contact with wild animals, like bats and monkeys, and their meat. Finally, wash your hands often.

Is there a vaccine for Ebola Virus?

 There is no approved medicine or vaccine to treat or prevent Ebola. Scientists have tested some of the drugs on animals which showed positive results. But they haven't studied how the medications affect humans. Althought they had a chance of creating a vaccine for Ebola Virus in the past, Ebola Virus was not as epidemic as now so the pharmaceutical companies did not invest in this domaine as it seemed not to be profitable.

What are the treatments for Ebola Virus?

 Since there aren't any drugs to fight the virus, health care teams offer basic support care like keeping the person hydrated with fluids through a IV, giving oxygen, maintaining their blood pressure, and treating any other infections they have.

Resources: Wikipedia, WHO, BBC News Africa, WebMD

By Sujin Kang