The Hot Zone By Richard Preston And The 1995 Movie Outbreak

Ebola virus disease is the kind of thing that horror writers dream about, it brings the most frightening of infectious disease symptoms to mind. Just imagine victims bleeding from their eyes, ears and nose. The nonfiction book The Hot Zone by Richard Preston and the 1995 movie Outbreak, are excellent examples of our perception of the disease. Ebola is highly infectious, rapidly fatal, deadly disease with a death rate of up to 90%, after the onset of symptoms. It is transmitted through direct contact with an infected person or primates bodily fluids like blood, saliva, urine, sperm, etc. or by contact with contaminated surfaces or equipment, including linen soiled by the infected person's body fluids. The disease is caused by members of a family

of filoviruses, and there are five distinct species: Bundibugyo ebolavirus, Taï Forest ebolavirus, Reston ebolavirus, Sudan ebolavirus and Zaire ebolavirus. Only the Reston Ebolavirus causes the hemorrhagic fever in primates, not humans
History
When a mysterious, and lethal illness raced through Catholic Mission in Yambuku, Zaire Democratic Republic of Congo) and surrounding villages, Jean-Jacques Muyembe, now the Director-General of the Democratic Republic of the Congo National Institute for Biomedical Research and Professor of Microbiology at Kinshasa University Medical School, sent samples of infected blood to a laboratory at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium.
Dr. Pattyn and his team were the first to see the virus through a powerful electron microscope, but they could not determine for sure whether what they observed was something new. They saw a lasso-shaped virus that resembled Marburg virus, a similar type of hemorrhagic fever that was discovered nine years early. The Antwerp lab was not equipped to work on deadly viruses like Marburg, so the World Health Organization instructed Dr. Pattyn to send the samples to the British military laboratories, where scientists started studying it, and also sent a sample to the Center of Disease Control in Atlanta. The Atlanta team in 1976 was Dr. Karl Johnson, head of special pathogens, Dr. Patricia Webb, a virologist, who ran the critical tests, and Johnson’s wife, James Lange, a CDC scientist, and Frederick Murphy, chief of the viral pathology branch. They were able to show that the outbreak was not caused by the Marburg virus but a unknown virus.
A team was then sent to Zaire to investigate and control the outbreak. The leaders of that effort were Dr. Karl Johnson and Dr. Joel Breman from the CDC. Dr.Johnson was the scientific director of the International Commission, and Dr. Breman was the chief of epidemiology, control, and surveillance. With them was eight scientist from around the world. Once they arrived in Zaire the team began the job of trying to trace how the outbreak started and how the virus is spreading, so they could stop the transmission of the virus. They traveled to numerous of villages to conduct interviews. They learnt that the reason that the virus was spreading at the time to other villages was because of unsanitary health care practices at the hospital, such as the nurses reusing needles on all the patient. The next step was to stop the transmission of the virus, so the teams systematically went from village to village and if someone was ill the scientist would put them into quarantine. Anyone in direct contact with those infected was also quarantined and they made sure everyone knew how to correctly bury those who had died from the virus. There has been about 25 major outbreaks since 1976, an several minor one in Africa and other countries. The worse outbreak was in 2013-2016 with 28,616 people infected, 11,310 fatalities (70%mortality). This epidemic spread abroad to many different countries such as the United States, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdoms.

The Risk
As with any other viruses, the survival of Ebola depends upon a host organism, or natural reservoir. Although much effort has been made to identify the natural reservoirs of Ebola virus, scientist could not establish a definite answer for what is the natural reservoir. The identification of the natural reservoir of a virus is important, because this knowledge gives information to the geographic range and ecological areas where humans may come in contact with animals or insects that may be the source of the disease. Scientist believe fruit bats are the natural reservoir. Experimental studies on African plants and animals that resulted in the infection of African insectivorous, and fruit bats with Zaire Ebolavirus, supports this idea. Also in three tree-roosting species of fruit bats: Hypsignathus monstrosus, Epomops franqueti, and Myonycteris torquata, researcher found evidence that Zaire Ebolavirus RNA in their bodies or antibodies to Ebola even though they did not exhibit signs of the disease, but scientist have not been able to successfully isolated Zaire Ebolavirus from the naturally infected bats. The identification and successful isolation of Marburg virus from the cave-dwelling fruit bat Rousettus aegyptiacus further lends support to the idea of bats as a reservoir species for filoviruses.
Fruit bats live in regions of Africa that include areas where Ebola outbreaks have occurred, and may play a key role in transmitting Ebola to great apes and humans.

Infected bats can transmit the virus to monkeys and apes, so humans can become infected while killing or butchering these animals. Cooking destroys the virus, so the risk from infection comes from the preparation of bat or ape meat, not in eating cooked meat. Humans and animals may also become infected through contact with infected bats or fruit contaminated by infected bats droppings. However, the vast majority of people that contract the virus through direct exposure to the body fluids of an infected person. Family, friends and healthcare providers caring for Ebola patients are at the highest risk of getting sick because they may come in contact with infected body fluids. Ebola also can be spread through direct contact with objects, such as clothes, bedding, syringes or medical equipment that have been contaminated with infected body fluids.

The Effect. Once a person is infected the incubation period would be 2-21 days. During this time a person is not contagious until the onset of symptoms. The initial symptoms would be The first symptoms of Ebola virus infection are a high fever, strong headaches, and joint and muscle pain. Progressing to bloody diarrhea, vomiting blood and stomach cramps, and internal and external

hemorrhaging.
The Ebola virus enters the host through mucosal surfaces; nose, eyes, and mouth, or breaks, and abrasions in the skin the virus must bind to and enter a cell to reproduce more copies of themselves that can then go on to infect other organisms. Precisely how the Ebola virus enters cells is unknown. Many viruses require a receptor- specific protein or other type of molecule on the surface of the host cell, which allows the virus to pass into a cell of a host organism. If an organism or cell type does not possess this particular receptor, the virus is unable to infect it. Knowing what this receptor is for any particular virus is a crucial piece of information for scientists, because it tells them which organisms or cell types are susceptible to infection by a certain virus. Also, this knowledge can be used to design therapies that may be able to prevent a virus from entering into a cell.
The Ebola virus replicates very quickly and is systemic, meaning that it attacks every organ and tissue of the human body except the bones and skeletal muscles.

The Ebola virus attacks several types of immune cells in the blood that represent the first line of defense against invasion. The virus infects dendritic cells, which normally activate T lymphocytes, so they could destroy the infected cells before the virus can replicate anymore. With defective dendritic cells failing to give the right signal, the T cells don’t respond to infection, and neither do the antibodies that depend on them for activation. Ebola, also inhibits interferon, a type of molecule that cells use to stop further viral reproduction. Lymphocytes do not become infected with the virus, but other factors, prevents these primary immune cells from putting up a

fight.
As the bloodstream takes the virus to the liver, spleen, and lymph nodes macrophages become infected. Macrophages releases proteins that cause clots in the bloodstream, blocking blood flow to organs. Red blood cells break apart when moving through small vessels filled with clots. The spleen then becomes overwhelmed with broken blood vessels. As cells in the liver are destroyed, the blood loses its normal ability to clot. Macrophages also produce cytokines, which causes inflammation. The cytokines is suppose to kill the infection, but the infected macrophages releases cytokine uncontrollably and a cytokine storm develops. The inflammation damages the lining of blood vessels, causing them to leak. Infected immune cells migrate out of the spleen and lymph nodes to other tissues, and organs.
The virus attacks connective tissue multiplying rapidly in collagen. Collagen is the tissue that keeps the organs in place. Once it is eaten away by Ebola the person upper layer of skin ends up floating on a layer of liquefied tissue, making it very easy for tears to occur on the skin. The virus cripples the cells that produce steroids to regulate blood pressure and causes circulatory failure that can starve organs of oxygen in the adrenal gland. Fluid accumulates in the brain, causing convulsions and mental confusion. People who die from Ebola usually succumb to very low blood pressure, multiple organ failure, and the shock of severe infection. Massive blood loss is not a frequent result of Ebola, but when it does happen, it is usually in the intestines.