How to keep ebola epidemic away

Public fear of the Ebola virus has begun to spread far beyond West Africa, where it has taken the lives of more than 900 people. Medical institutions in the US and beyond are on alert to identify and immediately isolate any patient who presents symptoms that may be related to the illness.

It began as a handful of cases in Guinea in March but quickly spread to neighbouring Sierra Leone and Liberia. And now, months after its eruption the WHO has declared the Ebola outbreak an international public health emergency.

 

History

Ebola virus was first isolated in 1976 during outbreaks of Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Zaire and Sudan. Thus, the name Zaire Ebola virus is derived from the country Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). Of Ebola’s five subtypes – Zaire Ebola Virus, Sudan Ebola Virus, Reston Ebola Virus, Côte d’Ivoire Ebola Virus and Bundibugyo Ebola Virus – Zaire is considered the most deadly.

 

What is Ebola

Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola Haemorrhagic Fever (HF), is a rare but deadly virus that causes bleeding inside and outside the body. As the virus spreads through the body, it damages the immune system and organs. Ultimately, it causes levels of blood-clotting cells to drop. This leads to severe, uncontrollable bleeding. The disease kills up to 90% of people who are infected.

The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission. Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are considered to be the natural host of the Ebola virus.

 

How contagious is the virus?

You are not likely to catch Ebola just by being in proximity with someone who has the virus; it is not airborne, like the flu or respiratory viruses such as SARS.

Instead, Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids. If an infected person’s blood or vomit gets in another person’s eyes, nose or mouth, the infection may be transmitted. In the current outbreak, most new cases are occurring among people who have been taking care of sick relatives or who have prepared an infected body for burial. Health care workers are at high risk, especially if they have not been properly equipped with or trained to use and decontaminate protective gear correctly. The virus can survive on surfaces, so any object contaminated with bodily fluids, like a latex glove or a hypodermic needle, may spread the disease.

 

Symptoms of Ebola HF:

-Fever
-Headache
-Joint and muscle aches
-Weakness
-Diarrhea
-Vomiting
-Stomach pain
-Lack of appetite

Some may also witness rash, red eyes, hiccups, cough, sore throat, chest pain, difficulty breathing and difficulty swallowing & bleeding inside and outside of the body. Symptoms may appear anywhere from 2 to 21 days after exposure to Ebola virus though 8-10 days is most common.

 

How is Ebola diagnosed?

Other diseases that should be ruled out before a diagnosis of EVD can be made include: malaria, typhoid fever, shigellosis, cholera, leptospirosis, plague, rickettsiosis, relapsing fever, meningitis, hepatitis and other viral haemorrhagic fevers.

Ebola virus infections can be diagnosed definitively in a laboratory through several types of tests:

-Antibody-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)
-Antigen detection tests
-Serum neutralization test
-Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay
-Electron microscope
-Virus isolation by cell culture.

Samples from patients are an extreme biohazard risk. Testing should be conducted under maximum biological containment conditions.

 

How is it treated?

There are no specific treatments for Ebola. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says patients are isolated and then supported by health care workers. There have been cases of healthcare workers contracting the virus from patients, and the WHO has issued guidance for dealing with confirmed or suspected cases of the virus. Care takers are advised to wear impermeable gowns and gloves and to wear facial protection such as goggles or a medical mask to prevent splashes to the nose, mouth and eyes.

On Monday, the World Bank said it will provide $200 million in emergency funding to help the three West African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to contain the worsening Ebola outbreak in the region.

 

What drugs exist to combat the drug?

Two American missionary workers infected with Ebola were given an experimental drug called ZMapp which seems to have saved their lives. The drug, developed by a San Diego firm, had never been tried before on humans, but it showed promise in small experiments on monkeys. But rolling out an untested drug during a massive outbreak would also be very difficult, according to MSF. Experimental drugs are typically not mass-produced, and tracking the success of such a drug if used would require extra medical staff where resources are already scarce. ZMapp’s maker says it has very few doses ready for patient use.