Ebola Virus Essay

1168 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The effects of the ebola virus

Ebola Virus – A Bloody Killer

The first doctor I saw told that it was malaria. Only in the special unit at the hospital I was diagnosed Ebola. I was isolated with other infected. None of us could sleep – we thought we would not make it to the morning. More and more people were dying and their bodies were wrapped and taken away and everything was happening in front of us. But then I started feeling better, step by step, and all symptoms gradually stopped. This was a powerful feeling when other doctors, nurses and other people waiting for me were not afraid of approaching to me. They were shaking my hands and felt safe touching me and I realized I was better (BBC World Service 2014).
By an average person from US, UK or from other developed countries this story might be confused with the plot of the fictional movie “Contagion” which features the uncontrollable spread of a deadly disease leading to more and more deaths all around the world. However, for the citizens of Central and West Africa this plot has become a reality. The cause of this nightmarish reality is Ebola virus disease (EVD) or Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF).

Ebola is…

Ebola virus of the Ebolavirus genus is a zoonotic infectious pathogen, which causes hemorrhagic fever in humans and non-human primates (Sobarzo A et al 2013). First introduced back in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo after the first outbreak with a lethal consequence of 280 out of 318 infected (McElroy AK et al 2014), now it is likely to gather pace. Although all subsequent Ebola outbreaks have occurred in a certain geographical area in Central and West parts of Africa with no reported spread beyond (Dimmock NJ et al 2007), the virus gives rise to serious public concern due to its extremel...

... middle of paper ...

...ound in our bodies. The trick is that the virus “gets confused” and incorporates the fatal molecule into its growing RNA strands which leads to the prevention of RNA synthesis and thus the entire viral replication.
In order to investigate the efficiency of the molecule and possible side effects, the research team tested the effect of BXC4430 on animal models. Cynomolgus macaques were inoculated with a fatal dose of Marburg virus and were treated with daily doses of BXC4430 from between 1-48 hours post infection. The results indicated that only one monkey treated one hour after being infected died. The rest of the monkeys survived and moreover didn’t show any symptoms of the disease. No signs of systemic toxicity were found.
It is still too early to announce that the Ebola virus disease is defeated but a great step towards that has been made (Warren TK et al 2014).

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of The Hot Zone By Richard Preston

    1239 Words  | 3 Pages

    This revealed to me that no one is exempt from stopping or catching a virus like Ebola.(226 Preston) I live in a society where we don’t have a virus affecting us like there is in Central Africa. This makes me more cautious of the things I would come into contact with such as sick people. It’s not as if that I would disown them if they were sick but I would take more measures to ensure that I wouldn’t catch their cold. Along with this I’ve been looking at the measures I take to ensure no one else would catch my cold or virus and that I can recover from it.

    Read More

  • The Ebola Virus: History, Occurrences, and Effects

    1222 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ebola, a virus which acquires its name from the Ebola River (located in Zaire, Africa), first emerged in September 1976, when it erupted simultaneously in 55 villages near the headwaters of the river. It seemed to come out of nowhere, and resulted in the deaths of nine out of every ten victims. Although it originated over 20 years ago, it still remains as a fear among African citizens, where the virus has reappeared occasionally in parts of the continent. In fact, and outbreak of the Ebola virus has been reported in Kampala, Uganda just recently, and is still a problem to this very day. Ebola causes severe viral hemorrhagic fevers in humans and monkeys, and has a 90 % fatality rate. Though there is no cure for the disease, researchers have found limited medical possibilities to help prevent one from catching this horrible virus.

    Read More

  • The Ebola Virus

    1216 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...d the disease from an infected chimpanzee in the forest. She was sent to a Swiss hospital where she recovered. An autopsy of the Chimpanzee showed effects similar to the Ebola virus.

    Read More

  • The Ebola Virus

    950 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...1976, scientists have not developed a complete understanding of the virus, such as it’s natural reservoir. The non-specific symptoms make it difficult to clinically diagnose, though there are laboratory tests that can be done to help diagnose patients. Ebola Haemorrhagic Fever also spreads quickly and easily, especially in hospitals where the proper safety precautions are not taken. Thankfully, scientists and doctors have made a successful vaccination that worked on monkeys and are working on one that will work on humans, hopefully helping decrease the dangerously high death rate and help save many people that may one day become infected.

    Read More

  • Public Health Problems: Ebola Virus

    1239 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ebola Virus comes from the known strain family virus called filo viruses, which are zoonotic pathogens. Symptoms include fever, headaches, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, throat pains, and muscle pains. These symptoms can start as early as 2 days to as late as 3 weeks after contracting the virus. This public health problem dates back to the 1970’s where the first three known outbreaks occurred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan (Li, Chen 2014). The Ebola virus is introduced into a population when there is close contact with the blood, secretions, or bodily fluids of animals that are infected. The virus started in Africa by humans coming into close contact with infected chimps, gorillas, bats, monkeys, antelopes, and porcupines. Ebola spreads within a community through human to human transmission. The virus is able to spread quickly due to direct contact of the skin or mucous membranes. Ebola is a problem in the world for six main reasons. First, there is no cure for the disease, vaccines have been tested but none are available for use. Second, Ebola is a very deadly disease. It can kill up to 90% of victims within a couple days of exposure (Cunningham 2003). Filo viruses cause episodic, lethal and hemorrhagic outbreaks in humans and in primates (Olival, Islam, Daszak 2013). Third, healthcare workers are becoming infected while treating patients. This is due to the close contact with patients and healthcare personnel not taking full precautions. Fourth, infected individuals are still contagious after death. This means that at funerals, family members have the potential to become infected with close contact to the infected individual. Fifth, people are infectious for as long as the virus is still pr...

    Read More

  • The Hot Zone Sparknotes

    1258 Words  | 3 Pages

    After the death of Charles Monet, the stage is set for much more to come. At the time, Monet’s death was considered unknown, because the Ebola virus was not known about at the time. Medication and antibiotics have no effect on someone with the virus, so obviously it’s pretty serious. Ebola is probably one of the most disgusting things anyone could ever imagine. What is basically does is turn your internal organs into liquid that then pours out of every single hole in your body, even the pores in your skin. Another effect of this virus is coughing up your own blood. This happens because the blood clots in your arteries and veins, which forces it to come out of your mouth and other areas. Eventually your skin will just explode from the pressure of all the blood built up in-between your skin and flesh. This virus can be very deceiving because it has the regular symptoms of diseases like malaria and typhoid fever, but it can kill you within a matter of 10 days.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Ebola

    1443 Words  | 3 Pages

    In our everyday life, we run the major possibility of becoming sick. Just from talking to somebody else can increase our chances of contracting a disease. Infectious Diseases can be contracted from just about anywhere, from the food we eat to the air we breathe. We have been dealing with disease for as long as we can remember and while they are still poise a major problem for us, we have gone through major steps to try and decrease the spread of these diseases.

    Read More

  • The Deadly Ebola Virus

    1292 Words  | 3 Pages

    Thesis Statement: The deadly virus Ebola is killing thousands of innocent people world wide, but there are some simple steps that are being taken to prevent this coming tide of death.

    Read More

  • Ebola Survey Paper

    918 Words  | 2 Pages

    This survey research study will focus on what people know about Ebola, their attitude toward other Ebola patient’s, and new prevention practice used to stop transmission of Ebola. The survey will be carried out in all of the fourteen districts in Sierra Leone to better understand the EVD outbreak on a national-level with cooperation from World Health Organization (WHO). A sample size beyond the minimum estimated sample of participants was used in order to attain 95% confidence level. Then the questionnaire data will be entered into a customized Excel-based system. The survey will be conducted from August 2018 until May 2019. This study will be an addition to past studies that were conducted at the time of the Ebola outbreak in 2014. This

    Read More

  • Ebola Research Paper

    588 Words  | 2 Pages

    Symptoms such as fever, severe headache, joint and muscle aches, chills, and weakness appear within the first five to ten days of being infected. As the virus progresses nausea, vomitting, red eyes, hemorrahagic rash***, chest pain and cough, stomach pain, svere weight loss, bleeding from the eyes, and internal bleeding could start to occur. Since the beginning symptoms are extremely unspecific doctors ask the patient if they have been in places where the outbreak is happening in the past 21 days. If the patient answers yes, then they are put in isolation and are tested for Ebola. The PCR is the most effective test for determining whether or not a person has Ebola, what it does is look for genetic material from the virus.

    Read More

  • Ethical Issues In Ebola Research

    2096 Words  | 5 Pages

    Outbreaks of Ebola have been occurring occasionally throughout the past years since its discovery in 1976; however, back in early 2014, the West African region experienced an outbreak and, since then, has spread slowly into the U.S., and is not showing any signs of stopping. It’s said that this outbreak is the largest outbreak of Ebola throughout its existence. Ebola is a highly pathogenic virus that has an extremely high fatality rate and spreads through bodily contact of fluids of the deceased. It’s almost impossible to draw samples to study the virus, partly because it kills its victims so quickly, and also because the virus is so hard to work with- it’s dangerous and requires a high safety environment. There’s currently no drug on the market, since all of them are currently in development/clinical trials. There are some ethical issues revolving around the development of these drugs, like who will be tested, would the researchers distribute a placebo, and who would receive the finalized drugs first: the people struck hardest by the outbreak in West Africa, or the American researchers who risked their lives to

    Read More

  • Ebola Research Paper

    584 Words  | 2 Pages

    Imagine a country where you could share a drink with someone and catch a virus that gives you a higher chance of dying than survival, a country where everyone is in fear of being in public, and nurses are in fear of coming into work. Many issues and questions concern the problem of Ebola in our society. The issue that is the focus of this paper is how to prevent Ebola from spreading across the country and becoming a bigger problem than it already is now. There are steps we must take to defeat Ebola, and this is a virus we must eliminate because it's very easily spread, can create a great amount of hysteria; possibly even anarchy, and can be cured if researched well enough before it's too late.

    Read More

  • Ebola Virus Analysis

    1539 Words  | 4 Pages

    In 1976, the first epidemic of the Ebola virus was presented. It had been discovered in a city called Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ebola is a highly mortal disease, which means that the release of this disease has risks that affect the health of people and can occur in other states. In addition, there are many people who have died from this virus. Moreover, the Ebola virus is a topic that has reached thousands of people since the virus was detected for the second time in 2014. Therefore, people are afraid that this dangerous virus can reach their families. When, where, how this virus occurred, what symptoms it has, how it affects us in our life, who discovered this virus, and more about this virus will be

    Read More

  • History Of The Ebola Virus

    1528 Words  | 4 Pages

    From 1977 to 2013, there were less than 500 cases infected with Ebola and fewer than 300 deaths per year. As of August 2007, 413 people were infected with Ebola by a hemorrhagic fever outbreak in Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo. It started with the village chief‘s funeral who died from unidentified causes, after that the villagers became ill and then EBOV spread out. The 2014 Ebola outbreak is the largest in history. EBOV cases are speeding up over time and spread out all over the world. To date, there are 4,808 deaths out of 13,015 cases infected with Ebola and the mortality rate is 90%. Researchers believe the Ebola outbreak was first started with a 2 year old boy in Meliandou, Guinea in December 2013. His family hunts bats for meat, yet African bats are carring Ebola virus which directly caused infection. His sister, mother, and grandmother died in a few weeks later, after his death with similar symptoms. People in the village came to the funeral and got infected, then spread the virus to other villages. It became a plurality of public health issue; however, they mistook the hemorrhagic fever of Ebola with Lassa fever or other disease. In March 2014, the Ebola virus disease spread throughout four countries in West Africa: Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria. This is the first time an Ebola outbreak occurs in these regions. On 28 May, Guinea's Ministry of Health (GMH) reported that 281

    Read More

  • The Ebola Virus

    2431 Words  | 5 Pages

    29 May. 1995: 43-49. pp. 113-113. Caldwell, Mark. A. “Ebola Tamed-for Now.”

    Read More

More about Ebola Virus Essay

Open Document