Basic facts about Ebola Virus Disease

MANILA, Philippines - As the lethal Ebola virus gains more attention around the globe, awareness about the virus must also be spread.  These are the twelve basic facts that you need to know about the virus.

• Ebola virus disease (EVD) first appeared in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks, in Nzara, Sudan, and in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. The virus received its name from the Ebola River found in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• EVD, formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans.
• Ebola is spread only through bodily fluids from an infected person, or from objects such as needles that have been in contact with infected bodily fluids.
• According to the World Health Organization (WHO), EVD outbreaks have a case fatality rate of up to 90 percent.
• EVD outbreaks occur primarily in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests. Scientists have explained that there are sociocultural factors contributing to the deadliness of the disease in West Africa.  Their tradition of families engaging in burial ceremonies that require them to touch the infected bodies of the recently dead, may be a factor of the spread of the disease.
• The disease is often characterized by the sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache, and sore throat, followed by vomiting, diarrhea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding.
• Patients are frequently dehydrated and require oral rehydration with solutions containing electrolytes or intravenous fluids.
• Men who have recovered from the disease can still transmit the virus through their semen for up to seven weeks after recovery from illness.
• According to the WHO, fruit bats are the most common hosts of the virus. Other animals commonly infected with the virus are nonhuman primates, monkeys, forest antelopes, and porcupines.
• The incubation period, that is, the time interval from infection with the virus to onset of symptoms is from two to 21 days.
• Ebola virus infections can be diagnosed definitively in a laboratory through several types of tests.
• There is currently no vaccine or cure. Several vaccines are being tested, but none are available for clinical use. The unknown serums are experimental. Before a medical treatment goes mainstream, it needs to be tested on animals, then on humans, and, finally, approved by the FDA.