Yes, Ebola is a scary infectious disease. It has been termed as the most deadly virus by World Health Organization. But the first thing you should know is that it’s not very contagious — the virus isn’t spread through the air via coughs or sneezes like the common cold. It’s spread through frequent contact with bodily fluids and can be spread only by someone who is showing symptoms.
The virus has already hit USA as a person who flew in from Liberia to Dallas, was diagnosed with the virus. It was the first ever Ebola diagnoses on US soil. The health administrators ran a complete check and investigated different people who could have come in contact with that patient. This aggressive investigation was carried out because they don’t want another person to get infected as it could lead to an outbreak there.
However, sadly, a majority in Pakistan are not even aware of the existence of this deadly virus. While US government might somehow find itself capable of fighting this virus but for a third world country like Pakistan, where majority of the people don’t have access to basic health facilities, it could not be less than a worst nightmare.
What needs to be done by Pakistani government is to remain vigilant and spread awareness among the people about this virus. Thus, the best way forward for Pakistan to fight Ebola, is to educate people about it.
This post details most important information about Ebola virus. After reading this post, a reader will have a basic idea as to what Ebola is, how can one prevent oneself, about its treatment and other important details.
Can a person spread this virus before showing symptoms?
Many viruses can hide in the body and spread from person to person without causing any symptoms in the people it infects. Ebola isn’t like that.
“Ebola doesn’t spread before someone gets sick,” Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday. “Ebola does not spread … from someone who doesn’t have fever and other symptoms.”
Symptoms generally occur abruptly eight to 10 days after infection, though that period can range from two to 21 days.
As people with the Ebola virus become sicker, they become more infectious, experts say. The virus can also spread through bodily fluids after the patient dies.
And by ‘bodily fluids,‘ you mean?
Blood, sweat, feces, vomit, semen and spit. Basically any kind of fluid that comes from the body. People in West Africa are avoiding hugs and handshakes because the virus can be spread through the sweat on someone’s hand.
The uninfected person would have to have a break in the skin of their hand that would allow entry of the virus, says a doctor. But “we all have minor breaks in our skin. And there is a possibility that some of the virus can be transmitted that way.”
Health care providers — or family and friends — caring for Ebola patients are often at the highest risk of getting sick because they are most likely to come in contact with the body fluids of sick patients, according to the CDC. People with Ebola suffer from extreme vomiting, diarrhea and high fevers, which causes sweating. In the later stages, they may start bleeding from their eyes, mouth or other orifices.
Bottom line?
“This is not an airborne transmission,” said Dr. Marty Cetron, director of the CDC’s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine. “There needs to be direct contact frequently with body fluids or blood.“
Close contact
While the Ebola virus is believed to be able to survive for some days in liquid outside an infected organism, Doctors Without Borders says, agents such as chlorine, heat, direct sunlight, soaps and detergents can kill it.
Could Ebola spread around the world via air travel?
While the CDC acknowledges it is possible for a person infected with Ebola in West Africa to get on a plane and arrive in another country — which is apparently what happened in the U.S. case — the chances of the virus spreading during the journey are low. That’s unless your fellow passenger is bleeding, sweating profusely or vomiting on you, of course.
“It is highly unlikely that someone suffering such symptoms would feel well enough to travel,” the International Air Transport Association said.
Travelers should take precautions by avoiding areas experiencing outbreaks and avoiding contact with Ebola patients.
What are Ebola’s symptoms?
Early symptoms include sudden onset of fever, weakness, muscle pain, headaches and a sore throat. These symptoms can appear two to 21 days after infection.
The WHO says these nonspecific early symptoms can be mistaken for signs of diseases such as malaria, typhoid fever, meningitis or even the plague.
MSF says some patients may also develop a rash, red eyes, hiccups, chest pains and difficulty breathing and swallowing.
The early symptoms progress to vomiting, diarrhea, impaired kidney and liver function and sometimes internal and external bleeding.
Ebola can only be definitively confirmed by five different laboratory tests.
How does Ebola virus spread?
The WHO says it is believed that fruit bats may be the natural host of the Ebola virus in Africa, passing on the virus to other animals.
Humans contract Ebola through contact with the bodily fluids of infected animals or the bodily fluids of infected humans.
MSF says that while the virus is believed to be able to survive for some days in liquid outside an infected organism, chlorine disinfection, heat, direct sunlight, soaps and detergents can kill it.
MSF epidemiologist Kamiliny Kalahne said outbreaks usually spread in areas where hospitals have poor infection control and limited access to resources such as running water.
“People who become sick with it almost always know how they got sick: because they looked after someone in their family who was very sick — who had diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding — or because they were health staff who had a lot of contact with a sick patient,” she said.
What drugs exist to combat the disease?
Two American missionary workers infected with Ebola were given an experimental drug called ZMapp, which seems to have saved their lives. The drug, developed by a San Diego firm, had never been tried before on humans, but it showed promise in small experiments on monkeys.
But rolling out an untested drug during a massive outbreak would also be very difficult, according to MSF. Experimental drugs are typically not mass-produced, and tracking the success of such a drug if used would require extra medical staff where resources are already scarce. ZMapp’s maker says it has very few doses ready for patient use.
There are other experimental drugs. Tekmira, a Vancouver-based company that has a $140 million contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to develop an Ebola drug, began Phase 1 trials with its drug in January. But the FDA recently halted the trial, asking for more information.
At least one potential Ebola vaccine has been tested in healthy human volunteers, according to Thomas Geisbert, a leading researcher at the University of Texas Medical Branch. And last week, the NIH announced that a safety trial of another Ebola vaccine will start as early as September.
And in March, the U.S. National Institutes of Health awarded a five-year, $28 million grant to establish a collaboration between researchers from 15 institutions who were working to fight Ebola.
“A whole menu of antibodies have been identified as potentially therapeutic, and researchers are eager to figure out which combinations are most effective and why,” a news release about the grant said.
How many cases have there been?
The CDC estimates there have been more than 3,000 cases of Ebola and more than 2,000 deaths since 1976.
The last recorded outbreaks before the current one in Guinea were in 2012 — in Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Uganda outbreak involved a total of 24 probable and confirmed cases, and 17 deaths, according to the WHO, which declared it had ended in October 2012.
MSF said the Uganda outbreak had been the Sudan strain, while the virus found in DRC was the Bundibugyo sub-type.
Before 2014, the most deadly outbreak was the 1976 outbreak in then Zaire, when 280 of 318 infected people died, according to the CDC. In 2000, there were 425 cases of Ebola Sudan in Uganda, which resulted in 224 fatalities.
with parts of the post copyrighted by CNN
