Ebola
EbolaIn the year 1976, Ebola climbed out of its unknown hiding place, and caused the death of 340 people. Fear gripped the victims faces, and uncertainty tortured their minds. The people of Zaire waited outside clinics, churches and in their homes for a treatment of the horrible disease, but there was no cure. They were forced to watch people die, hoping that they would be saved from the violent death of the Ebola virus. From the year of 1976 to the present date of 1996, researchers have searched for origin and cure of the virus. Scientist have carried out numerous studies and investigations, but no one has been able to find the right explanations. Prevention of a world wide outbreak lies within the education of what the virus is capable of doing, how Ebola victims can be properly treated , and by performing prompt action to isolate the virus before it has dispersed.
The Ebola virus is a member of a family of RNA viruses know as filoviruses. Marburg virus and four Ebola viruses: Ebola Zaire, Sudan, Reston and Tai are the five different viruses that have been known to cause disease in humans, while Ebola Reston only causes disease within monkeys. Filoviruses, arenaviruses, flaviruses, and bunyaviruses are the viruses responsible for causing viral hemorrhagic fevers. All forms of virus of viral hemorrhagic fever begin with fever and muscle aches. These diseases usually progress until the patient becomes very ill with respiratory problems, severe bleeding, kidney malfunctions, and shock. The conclusions of the viral hemorrhagic fever can range from a mild illness to death (www.cdc.gov/nci..brochures/ebolainf.html, 1995).
Ebola viruses are spread though close personal contact with a person who is very ill with the disease. Usually the wide spread action of the virus takes place among hospital care workers or family members who were aiding an infected person. Ebola can spread by the reuse of hypodermic needles, which occurs frequently in underdeveloped countries like Zaire and Sudan, but it is unlikely to become infected by close contact with persons infected who show no symptoms (MacKenzie, 1995).
The Ebola virus spreads through the blood and is replicated in organs, including the liver, lymphatic organs, kidneys, ovaries and testes. The central lesions appear to be those affecting the vascular endothelium and the platelets. The resulting symptoms are bleeding, especially in the nose, abdomen, pericardium and vagina. Capillary leakage appears to lead to loss of intravascular volume, bleeding, shock and the acute respiratory disorder seen in fatal cases. Patients basically die of intractable shock. Those with severe illness often have fevers and are delirious, combative and difficult to control.
Some victims of the Ebola virus, one out of ten people infected, survive the virus's deadly operations. Due to its self limiting nature, the Ebola virus is known to sometimes die out within a person before killing the host organism (www.uct.ac.za/microbiology/ebolaess.html).
Just like the history of wars and other social epidemics, the Ebola outbreaks need to be remembered and learned from. The first...
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