ESSENTIAL EBOLA FACTS

* Ebola hemorrhagic fever is a disease caused by different strains of a virus first identified in the interior of Africa.

* Ebola infects various animals but seems to kill only humans and non‑human primates, like chimpanzees.

* Ebola has, until recently, been contained in Africa. The current outbreak has a 70% death rate.

* Ebola has an incubation period (a period where you are infected but show no symptoms) of two to twenty‑one days.

* Early Ebola symptoms can be confused with other infections at first, including influenza or malaria.

* Early symptoms of Ebola include: fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, sore throat, and weakness. Later symptoms include diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, hiccups, rashes, bleeding, and organ failure. When Ebola progresses to external and internal bleeding, it is almost always fatal.

* Ebola is most commonly spread by contact with blood and secretions, either via direct contact with the infected individual or fluids on clothing or other surfaces, as well as needles.

* At the highest risk for Ebola are those who live or travel to infected regions and have come in close contact with an infected person.

* The disease remains transmissible for a time in patients and in certain body fluids (such as semen) of those who recover.

* At present, there is no FDA‑approved treatment for Ebola, although some promising drugs and vaccines are being developed and tested.

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Early symptoms of Ebola include: fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, sore throat, and weakness. Later symptoms include diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, hiccups, rashes, bleeding, and organ failure. When Ebola progresses to external and internal bleeding, it is almost always fatal.

These tests are bringing scientists closer to a method of stopping the viral replication of Ebola, but they are not there yet. Experimental drugs and serums have been created that derived from this research, but these have not been fully tested. The process for approval of a new treatment or medication, at least in the United States, is often a slow and arduous one. The hope is that there is still time for science to win the race against the spread of the disease.

NOW YOU KNOW…

Ebola is a deadly virus that attacks healthy cells and replicates itself in a host’s body. It is commonly, but not always, fatal. Discovered in 1976 in Central Africa, the current outbreak is in the more heavily populated countries of West Africa. Promising treatments and vaccines are in development and being tested, but are not yet officially approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

2. How Does Ebola Spread?

If Ebola has been contained in West Africa for nearly forty years, how is it, all of a sudden, a concern for the West? One reason is that the countries affected by the current outbreak are more heavily populated than previous outbreaks. With unrestricted commercial air travel, infectious organisms can spread faster than ever before.

Ebola also spreads when the proper precautions to contain it are not taken. Even when the correct procedures are adhered to, human error is an issue. In October 2014, the theoretical spread of Ebola into the western hemisphere became very real when Thomas Duncan entered the United States from Liberia. He was already infected with Ebola and started developing symptoms within a few days. Yet, due to a failure in the chain of communication, he was misdiagnosed with influenza and released back into the public. For the next two days, the highly contagious Mr. Duncan came into contact with one hundred other people before returning to the hospital in an ambulance.

Let’s follow his journey from Liberia. Imagine all the ticket takers, fellow passengers, flight crews, airport personnel at his destination, the driver who took him to the place he was staying, the people he visited. What if Mr. Duncan had gotten a paper cut from his boarding pass? What if he got motion sickness in a cab and vomited in the back seat? Either of these scenarios, and others, could have happened. It is certainly known that he vomited outside the apartment where he was staying.

If just a few people had been infected, the ever‑widening circle of contacts would have been tremendous. End result? An epidemic in the United States.

The previous situation with Ebola was that it would devastate some sparsely populated areas with a lack of resources and then eventually burn out. It was out of control in isolated small villages, but soon those that would die did, and the survivors either stayed or moved away once they recovered.

Extreme poverty and lack of resources are a contributing factor to the spread of Ebola. However, it goes well beyond financial or educational deficits. Consider this scary scenario that was recently reported by the World Health Organization: “In Sierra Leone, bodies of Ebola victims have been left in the street because of a strike by burial teams, who complain they have not been paid.” Remember that Ebola is not just contagious from being in contact with a living victim; it remains contagious even after the victim has died. Picking up a discarded towel that had been used in the treatment of an Ebola victim and is encrusted with blood and other fluids creates just as lethal a risk. Imagine infected corpses lining the streets where people walk and commerce occurs and you can see the full extent of the problem.

In March 2014, infected persons from smaller towns began to be moved to larger hospitals in major cities. This has only created larger issues. There are too many patients and not enough hospital beds or health‑care workers. At one point, there were one thousand Ebola patients in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, and only 240 hospital beds for them. There are two doctors per 100,000 people in Sierra Leone, compared with 2.5 per 1,000 people in the United States. Some of the few doctors available were the first to contract the virus and die.

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Remember that Ebola is not just contagious from being in contact with a living victim; it remains contagious even after the victim has died.

So, as time goes on, the situation worsens. It hasn’t helped that the global community is coming in a day late and a dollar short. A condition that was once contained in the farthest reaches of the world has decimated several African countries’ populations and economies and made its way to Europe and the United States.