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Ebola Disease
Name
Institution
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Ebola disease
Introduction
Ebola is a viral disease that results in serious and acute disease and if untreated and it is
very fatal. The first case was reported in 1976, in Nzara, which is currently in South Sudan.
Another one was reported in Yambuku DRC which is near the Ebola River, thus the adoption of
its name. From 2014 to 2015, West Africa experienced the highest outbreak since its discovery
in 1976. The virus is in the family of Filoviridae and can be categorized into three i.e. is
Ebolavirus, Marburgvirus, and Cuevavirus. It is believed that the virus got in humans through
close contact with bodily fluids from animals such as gorillas, fruit bats, and chimpanzees. The
disease gets transmitted through direct contact with an infected person. Some of the symptoms
that one can experience include muscle pains, fatigue, fever, headache, and sore throat. This
paper will focus on the disease’s mode of transmission, pathogen, symptoms, prevention, and
treatment.
Pathogen
Ebola virus belongs to the Filoviridae virus family. filoviridae together with Marburg
virus (Marv) get referred to as filovirus. Ebola is a viral disease resulting in the deaths of both
humans and non-human primates. Upon exposure to the virus, one will usually get sick within 2-
20days. The death rate of the disease is 50-90%. The ebolavirus genus has six categories namely,
Sudan, Zaire, Tai Forest, Bundibugyo, Bombali as well as Reston (Falasca et al., 2015). The
earliest outbreaks were mainly caused by Zaire species and normally occurred in DRC and had a
fatality rate of 80-90 percent.
Mode of transmission
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It is believed that the initial infection with Ebola was from the animals such as non-
human primates and fruit bats. After the spillover event, the disease had to spread from one
person to the other that resulted in a large number of people getting infected. The spread of the
virus is through direct contact with mucus membranes and other bodily fluids. Blood and body
fluids such as sweat, urine, vomit, feces, amniotic fluid, breast milk, and semen are all examples
that can transmit from the sick person. Besides, if a person comes into contact with the fluids of a
person who has died of Ebola, he or she will still contact the disease. Objects that get
contaminated such as beddings, clothes, and medical equipment can as well transmit the virus. In
addition, infected animals will still transmit the virus. It should be noted that semen may still
contain the virus despite a man has recovered from the disease (Subissi et al., 2018). The virus
has the capability of staying in body fluid despite such people not showing any signs and
symptoms of the disease. Therefore it means that the virus can be spread through sex or virginal
fluids contacts. Upon the virus getting into the body, the infected person will not show the
symptoms immediately. There is an incubation period between when a person gets exposed and
the illness. A person only spread the virus to others after the symptoms have shown up. Ebola
virus does not get transmitted through food. All the same, it may spread through the consumption
of meat from infected animals. There is still no evidence of insects such as mosquitoes spreading
t disease.
The virus is known to stay in privileged sites even after acute infection. Some of these
sites include the interior of the eye, placenta, testes, and central nervous systems. In an outbreak,
the virus normally spread more in a health care setting. As such, medical personnel are advised
to use disposable and dedicated medical equipment. The equipment should as well get properly
cleaned if they are not disposable. Ebola virus is known to survive in services such as
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countertops and doorknobs for several hours. In body fluid, the virus at room temperature may
survive for days.
Common signs and symptoms
In most people, symptoms usually appear from 2-21days after exposure. On average, it
takes 8 to 10 days for the symptoms to show. The progression of the illness is usually from dry to
wet illness. The dry symptoms include aches, fever, fatigue, and pains. The wet symptoms
include vomiting and diarrhea. Therefore the primary symptoms include the following sore
throat, aches, and pains, fever, loss of appetite as well as unexplained bleeding. Other symptoms
may include skin rash, red eyes, and hiccups. As one should note, all these signs are common to
other illnesses such as typhoid, malaria, and influenza. Despite, the virus is rare it is deadly when
it occurs. For one to recover from the virus there is the need to have supportive clinical care.
Prevention
Prevention and control of this deadly virus depend on interventions such as contact
tracing, case management, safe burials, good laboratory services, and social mobilization.
Therefore, the community needs to get engaged to control the spread of the disease in case of an
outbreak. The creation of awareness of risk factors would play a great role in reducing human
transmission. There should be a focus on the reduction of wildlife to human transmission through
educating the communities. Communities should be aware that consuming meat from various
animals may spread the disease if such an animal is infected. Such animals include porcupines,
forest antelope, apes, and monkeys. People as well avoid contact with blood from people who are
sick. In addition, people should avoid coming into contact with the semen of a person who has
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survived the disease. In 2019, FDA approved the Ebola vaccine known as ervebo. It is given as a
single dose and has proven to be safe against the virus (Jacob et al., 2020).
Treatment
Ebola has two known treatments that have been approved by FDA. They include the
inmazeb drug and ebanga. Inmazeb has a combination of monoclonal antibodies while ebanga
has a single monoclonal antibody.
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References
Falasca, L., Agrati, C., Petrosillo, N., Di Caro, A., Capobianchi, M. R., Ippolito, G., &
Piacentini, M. (2015). Molecular mechanisms of Ebola virus pathogenesis: focus on cell
death.DCell Death & Differentiation,D22(8), 1250-1259.
Jacob, S. T., Crozier, I., Fischer, W. A., Hewlett, A., Kraft, C. S., de La Vega, M. A., ... & Kuhn,
J. H. (2020). Ebola virus disease.DNature reviews Disease primers,D6(1), 1-31.
Subissi, L., Keita, M., Mesfin, S., Rezza, G., Diallo, B., Van Gucht, S., ... & Fall, I. S. (2018).
Ebola virus transmission caused by persistently infected survivors of the 2014–2016
outbreak in West Africa.DThe Journal of infectious diseases,D218(suppl_5), S287-S291.
