The
ebola virus is one of the most feared diseases in the entire world. It belongs to a
family of
negative-stranded RNA viruses known as
Filoviridae. This virus has presented numerous challenges to the
medical and scientific communities, because it is very
difficult to study
live specimens. It is extremely hard to treat as it is unclear how it
originates, and they haven't many ideas as to what an effective
treatment would be. (
Research is on-going, of course.) There are several
strains, three which can have a
human host, one that is strictly found in
animals, and others that haven't been pin-pointed yet.
Primates seem to be a likely
suspect, as far as the origin goes.
There haven't been any cases documented in the U.S. or Canada, aside from an
incident where a group of monkeys infected with a strain of ebola were shipped from
Europe to the
United States. This isolated incident didn't lead to any human infections, but it still seems pretty frightening that it happened at all. (Note: Apparently, there was a human infection. My apologies - reasearch I had conducted at the time this node was written did not indicate that was the case.) Places ebola outbreaks have occurred include:
Zaire, the
Tai Forest,
Sudan,
Reston, and in some other isolated communities in
Africa. It is suspected that this can be partly contributed to
living conditions, and the high population of primates.
The patient generally
dies within a two week period after contracting ebola, and the
cause of death is normally attributed to extreme
loss of blood,
dehydration, and quite often, shock. The only semi-sucessful treatments have included injecting the person with the blood from someone who has
recovered from ebola, in addition to repeated blood transfusions to combat blood loss as well as continuous rehydration. All of the treatments have had
mixed results, so it is unclear as to their effectiveness. The main areas targetted by the
disease are the
liver,
kidneys,
spleen, and basically all of the major internal
organs.
The disease is so highly
contagious, inflicted persons must be
kept in isolation. The disease is spread mainly through
bodily fluids, but research and experience in affected areas indicate the disease may very well be airborne.
What I'm saying here is, pray that you
never get this, or you'll just be, well,
totally f#@$ed.