Ebola History

The History of Ebola If you have turned on a television in the last couple of months, you have probably heard talk about Ebola. In 2014 alone, there has been just shy of 1,000 cases of Ebola throughout the world (“Ebola Fact”). Although this is the first many people have heard of Ebola, it has been around for years. The discovery of Ebola actually happened in 1976. Peter Piot was 27 years old and working in Antwerp, Belgium when a flask arrived in his laboratory. Not knowing what to think of the mysterious virus inside the flask, he and the others in the lab started testing the virus (Brown). After placing the virus underneath a microscope, Piot saw something he had never seen before, “We saw a gigantic worm like structure…It’s a very

First, people often got fever and malaise. Malaise is a general feeling of discomfort that is hard to identify. Following that came diarrhea, vomiting, pain, and nausea. In many cases, the person with the virus began bleeding from their insides (Brooks). Few people were surviving after symptoms of the virus became apparent. Piot knew he needed to travel to the center of the outbreak. A few weeks after Piot tested the mysterious virus at his laboratory, Piot traveled long and far to a village in the middle of the African rainforest where the epidemic was in full action (Brown). Piot mentioned, “As they [the pilots] left, they shouted ‘Adieu’. In French, people say ‘Au Revior’ to say ‘See you again’, but when they say ‘Adieu’ - well, that’s like saying, ‘We’ll never see you again” (Brown). When Piot and his team finally arrived at the village located in present day Democratic Republic of Congo, a sign hung saying ‘Please stop, anybody who crosses here may die’ (Brown). Although they were stepping into the unknown, they were prepared to find out what was going

A main source for protein in Africa is bush meat, which is bats or apes found in the jungle (Walsh, et al.). The fruit bat is able to carry the virus without showing symptoms of the Ebola virus. Newsweek Global stated, “Ebola thrives in certain animals — the ‘reservoir’ species — for years between human outbreaks” (Schlanger and Wolfson). Once meat of a fruit bat is ingested, the Ebola virus is spread to the human being. Humans can then spread the virus to other humans. There are many different strains of the Ebola virus. Five species have been identified, and three have been related to large Ebola virus outbreaks in Africa which include Bundibugyo, Zaire, and Sudan (“Ebola Virus”). Although there are many different viruses, Ebola is not so easy to