5 Things You Should Know About Ebola

An outbreak of Ebola in western West Africa has killed at least 1,600 people, according to the World Health Organization. Here are five things you should know about this virulent and often deadly infection:
What is Ebola?
Ebola, officially known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is a severe disease caused by the Ebola virus that was first recognized in Africa in 1976. 

Early symptoms can include fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, sore throat and weakness, followed by diarrhea, vomiting and stomach pain, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In some cases, the disease causes rashes, red eyes, hiccups and internal and external bleeding, the CDC says.
Up to 90 percent of people who are infected with Ebola die from it, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Outbreaks have occurred in African countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Sudan, the Ivory Coast, Uganda and the Republic of the Congo, and now Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the CDC says.
How is it transmitted?
Humans are not the natural hosts of the Ebola virus, and it's believed that the first person in any outbreak became infected through contact with an infected animal, the CDC says. Animals that are reported to have spread disease to humans include chimpanzees, gorillas, forest antelopes and cynomolgus monkeys, according to the World Health Organization. Once one person has become infected, the disease can spread from person to person through contact with the blood, saliva, mucus or other secretions. In the countries where Ebola has occurred, the disease is frequently spread in health care settings to workers who have had contact with patients and do not wear protective clothing or masks, the CDC says. Re-use of contaminated needles can also spread the disease.
Researchers still do not know where Ebola naturally resides. Studies have shown bats can be infected with the virus and survive without symptoms of disease, according to the WHO. Some have speculated bats play a role in maintaining the virus in nature, the WHO says.
How many people have been infected?
Since Ebola was discovered, nearly 4,000 cases and more than 2,400 deaths have been reported, according to the WHO. (This includes the current outbreak in West Africa).
Has there ever been an outbreak in the United States?
Ebola has not caused disease in the United States. In 1990, several researchers in Virginia and Texas became infected with a type of Ebola virus from contact with imported monkeys, the CDC says. However, the type of Ebola in these cases, now called Ebola-Reston, did not cause symptoms in humans, although it was fatal in monkeys.
Is there a cure?
No. Patients with Ebola are treated with supportive therapy, which includes balancing their fluids, maintaining their oxygen levels and blood pressure, and treating them for any complicating infections, the CDC says.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fussy eaters: the favoured food of Salmonella

Image
As antibiotic resistance increases the search for new anti-bacterial treatments becomes more and more important. One way to design anti-bacterials is to find specific biochemical pathways that the bacteria require to survive, and develop drugs that block off these pathways. Some pathways are better targets than others and for  Salmonella bacteria it was thought that pathways dealing with nutrient metabolises would be a lost cause. Salmonella lives in the intestine, which hosts a whole variety of different nutrients, so surely preventing the bacteria from using a specific one wouldn’t cause them much undue distress. It’s been found, however, that as they grow and spread in the inflamed intestine the bacteria are heavily reliant on one particular nutrient: fructose-asparagine. The chemical structure of fructose-asparagine, image from the reference. The importance of fructose-asparagine metabolism was originally discovered during experiments desig
Read more

Timing is key for bacteria surviving antibiotics

For bacteria facing a dose of antibiotics, timing might be the key to evading destruction. In a series of experiments, Princeton researchers found that cells that repaired DNA damaged by antibiotics before resuming growth had a much better chance of surviving treatment. When antibiotics hit a population of bacteria, often a small fraction of "persister" cells survive to pose a threat of recurrent infection. Unlike bacteria with genetic resistance to antibiotics, evidence suggests that persisters stay alive in part by stalling cellular processes targeted by the drugs. In a new study, Princeton researchers examined a class of antibiotics that target bacterial DNA. In bacterial populations, some cells repair damaged DNA before resuming growth, and others resume growth before making repairs. The researchers found that those that make repairs before resuming growth generally are the ones that survive as persisters. The research advances a long-term goal to make
Read more

Nanoparticles derived from tea leaves destroy lung cancer cells: Quantum dots have great potential

Nanoparticles derived from tea leaves inhibit the growth of lung cancer cells, destroying up to 80% of them, new research by a joint Swansea University and Indian team has shown. The team made the discovery while they were testing out a new method of producing a type of nanoparticle called quantum dots. These are tiny particles which measure less than 10 nanometres. A human hair is 40,000 nanometres thick. Although nanoparticles are already used in healthcare, quantum dots have only recently attracted researchers' attention. Already they are showing promise for use in different applications, from computers and solar cells to tumour imaging and treating cancer. Quantum dots can be made chemically, but this is complicated and expensive and has toxic side effects. The Swansea-led research team were therefore exploring a non-toxic plant-based alternative method of producing the dots, using tea leaf extract. Tea leaves contain a wide variety of compounds, including
Read more