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KNOW IT ALL: EBOLA VIRUS

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DAVID ADAMS takes a look at some facts about the deadly Ebola virus…

With the death toll from the latest Ebola outbreak now more than 1,400, we take a look at what we know about the disease…

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Fruit bats are believed to be natural hosts of EVD. PICTURE: Serrah Galos/Unsplash

• Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, first appeared in 1976 in simultaneous outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaire) and Sudan.

• The disease takes its name from the site of the DRC outbreak – the village of Yambuku, located about 100 kilometres south of the Ebola River. It was first ‘discovered’ by 27-year-old Belgian scientist and medical school graduate Peter Piot, who went on to become under secretary-general of the United Nations and executive director of UNAIDS.

• EVD is believed to be naturally hosted by fruit bats and is understood to be transmitted to the human population through contact with blood or bodily fluids of infected animals such as chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines.

• Human-to-human transmission occurs through direct contact with a sick person’s bodily fluids (or through objects like needles infected with a diseased person’s bodily fluids). Nearly all the cases reported in the current outbreak have been due to human-to-human transmission.

• Ebola outbreaks, which have primarily occurred in remote villages in western and central Africa near tropical rainforests, have a case fatality rate of 90 per cent. According to the World Health Organization, the current outbreak’s survival rate has been higher than usual at 47 per cent.

• The disease’s incubation period – the time from initial infection to onset of the virus – is between two and 21 days, although between eight and 10 days is the most common period. Symptoms include fever, severe headaches, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pains and unexplained bleeding or bruising. A person with Ebola is not contagious until symptoms have appeared.

• The current Ebola outbreak – the deadliest to date – is centred in four countries in West Africa – Guinea, LIberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. It started in south-east Guinea and, according to Medecins San Frontieres, was “unprecedented” due to the distributed nature of cases.

• Health care workers and family and friends of the infected are among those most at risk of contracting the disease. In the current outbreak, transmission has also occurred during funerals and burial rituals.

• According to Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of international vaccine organisation GAVI Alliance, if Ebola ever did make it to Europe or North America, the chances of it spreading far would be “remote”. In an article published on the BBC website, he says this is due to two reasons – the stringency of disease surveillance regimes in such places and the fact that Ebola kills or immobilises its host before they have “much of a chance to spread it”. The Australian Government says the risk to Australia remains “very low”.

• US missionaries Dr Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol were flown back to the US after contracting the disease in West Africa but have since been cured of the virus (and released from hospital) after being given an experimental drug known as ZMapp. While it is one of a number of products under development, there is officially no licensed medicine or vaccine to treat Ebola virus disease.

Sources: WHOCDCMSFSmart Traveller

 

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