Karla Lerma
S.Peck
INRW 0311
16 March 2015
Ebola
The 2014 Ebola was the largest epidemic virus in history, causing a colossal damage in the human body prolonging them to death. The notoriously deadly virus cause fearsome symptoms, the most prominent being high fever and massive internal bleeding. Ebola virus kills as many as 90 % of the people it infects. It is one of the viruses that is capable of causing hemorrhagic (bloody) fever. Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids. A cough from a sick person could infect someone who has been sprayed with saliva. This is why the virus has often been spread through the families and friends of infected persons: in the course of feeding, holding, or otherwise caring for them, family members and friends would come into close contact with such secretions. The Ebola virus infects by entering a host cell and realizing a small piece of RNA. The RNA hijacks the machinery of the cell and uses it to create more copies of the Ebola virus, which turn into another cells. Specialist at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta have also found that the virus is present on patient’s skin after symptoms develop. Underlining how contagious the disease in once symptoms set in. In effect, Symptoms usually begin about eight to 10 days after exposure to the virus, but can appear as late as 21 days after exposure, according to the C.D.C (center for disease control). At first, it seems much like a flu: a headache, fever and aches and pains. Sometimes there is also a rash. Diarrhea and vomiting follow. In most of the cases, the virus takes several turns, causing victims to hemorrhage. They may vomit blood or pass it in urine, or bleed under the skin or from their eyes or mouths. Then finally come chest pain, shock and death. According to Dr. Bruce Hirsch, an infectious-disease specialist at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York “The symptoms are extremely nonspecific in the beginning — Ebola looks like almost anything.” Consequently, because the symptoms of Ebola are so much like those of other diseases, medical professional use a series of test to diagnose it such as virus isolation by cell culture, serum neutralization test, Antigen-capture detection tests, and electron microscopy to name some of them. Therefore, there was no specific treatment or cure for the disease, those who recovered from the disease do so through the strength of their own immune system, according to the CDC. Doctors have found that one of the most important treatments for patients afflicted with the virus is simply keeping them well hydrated and helping them breathe, to give their immune system a better chance to fight off the disease also research shows that patients who recover from Ebola can develop antibodies that will protect them from the virus for at least 10 years, or possibly even longer. After the patient recovers, he or she is no longer contagious. There is one exception, though. A recovered patient can still spread the virus with semen for up to three months after they recover. Doctors advise anyone who was
