Ebola Virus Description, Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatments

Also known as the Ebola Virus, this an extremely fatal disease found among humans as well as the non-human primate such as chimpanzees, gorillas and monkeys. The disease was discovered in 1976. The disease was named after the river in Democratic Republic of Congo where this disease was first found.

What is Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever?

This is one of the two viruses which originate from the family of RNA viruses also known as Filoviridae. There are five clearly defined sub-types of this Ebola Virus which are found among humans. These are known as the Ebola Sudan, Ebola Zaire, Ebola Coast and Ebola Bundibugyo. The last one which is known as Ebola Reston is also a subtype but by far it has not been found in the humans and has only affected the non-human primates (Mahy & Peters, 1996).

The exact location or place of origin to the Ebola Virus still remains unknown but it is believed to have originated in Africa and was found in Zoonotic which was the animal host for the virus to originate. Another one of the places for the originating of the Ebola virus was discovered in Philippines. This virus was similar to the Ebola Reston subtype of the virus, which came from the monkeys that were infected with cynomolgous and they were brought into the United States and Italy from Philippines. This disease however stayed limited till here and was not spread out to North America.

How the virus first becomes evident in a person with an outbreak has not been gathered yet. Some researchers used the method of hypnosis to get to the bottom of the reason why individuals get infected with this virus. They found that the contact with an infected animal may be the reason to catch this deadly virus.
After there is an outbreak of the virus in a particular setting, there are various ways in which the people can get infected and the disease can get transmitted. This can happen due to exposure to or any kind of direct contact with the secretions or the blood of the infected individual. Hence, it is common to see entire families and social circle falling under this disease because they maintain close contact with each other. This infection can also be transferred through contact with certain objects that have traces of the secretions like needles or other such objects.

This Ebola virus is a disease that can even spread in a health care setting for instance a hospital or a clinic. In some African facilities, there were cases discovered under which the patients were taken care of without the use of masks and the disposing off of needles and injections. They were not sterilized and came in direct contact with the caretakers…