Ebola Medical Article
Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans. The Ebola virus is a member of the family filoviridae. So far, only two members of this virus family have been identified, one being the Ebolavirus. Ebola virus has caused the majority of human deaths from EVD, and is the cause of the 2013–2014 Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa, which has resulted in at least 17,290 suspected cases and 6,460 confirmed deaths (Wikipedia). First discovered in 1976, there were 280 deaths, and only 38 serologically confirmed survivors. The natural reservoir of Ebola virus is believed to be bats, particularly fruit bats, and it is primarily transmitted between humans and from animals to humans (Wikipedia). Ebola is spread through direct contact with blood and body fluids of an infected person to another. First symptoms are the sudden onset of fever fatigue, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhea, rash, symptoms of impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding (who.int). Ebola is not known to be spread through the air, water, food, or mosquitoes. Tests used to confirm the diagnosis of Ebola virus infection include an immunohistochemical test performed on formalin-fixed postmortem skin taken from patients who have died of Ebola hemorrhagic fever (emedicine.medscape.com) As of right now there are no commercially available Ebola vaccines; however, neutralizing antibodies have been studied that may be useful in vaccine development or as passive prophylactic agents (emedicine.medscape.com).
September 2014
Ebola Virus Disease no specific author http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/ December 2014
Ebola Virus no specific author http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_virus Ebola Virus Infection
Author: John W King, MD
November 2014 http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/216288-overview Medical Terms
1. Serologically - the scientific study of plasma serum and other bodily fluid 2. Filoviridae - taxonomic home of several related viruses that form filamentous infectious viral particles, and encode their genome in the form of single-stranded negative-sense RNA 3. Haemorrhagic - Pertaining to bleeding or the abnormal flow of blood 4. Immunohistochemical - refers to the process of detecting antigens (e.g., proteins) in cells of a tissue section by exploiting the principle of antibodies binding specifically to antigens in biological tissues 5. Postmortem - an examination of a dead body to determine the cause of death
