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Ebola Virus Disease (Formerly known as Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever)

What is Ebola Virus Disease?
According to the NHS choices website (NHS Choices, 2015), Ebola Virus Disease (EVD)
is a viral hemorrhagic fever caused by infection with one of five Ebola virus strains
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These are Ebola virus
(Zaire ebolavirus); Sudan virus (Sudan ebolavirus); Taï Forest virus (Taï Forest
ebolavirus, formerly Côte d’Ivoire ebolavirus); and Bundibugyo virus (Bundibugyo
ebolavirus)
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, 2010) EVD is part of Group V (negative-sense ssRNA virus)
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EVD belongs to the viral family Filoviridae
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There are five strains of Ebola,
Zaire ebolavirus, Sudan ebolavirus, Taï Forest ebolavirus (formerly known as Côte d’Ivoire
ebolavirus), Bundibugyo ebolavirus and Reston ebolavirus
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This means it can
take two to twenty one days from the subject being infected with the virus for symptoms to
appear
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The first symptoms that
appear are similar to the influenza virus; Fever, fatigue (tiredness), muscle pain, headache
and a sore throat
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An article posted on the American Association for the Advancement of Science website
(American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2014) says that EVD enters the
host body and begins attacking several types of immune defence cells
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Since the dendritic cells cannot send signals to the T-lymphocytes, the Tlymphocytes do not respond to the infection and neither do the antibodies that are reliant
on the T-lymphocytes for activation
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Once infected, they release proteins that trigger coagulation, forming small clots
throughout the blood vessels and reducing blood supply to organs
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Although this damage is one of the
main symptoms of infection, not all patients exhibit external haemorrhaging—
bleeding from the eyes, nose, or other orifices
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Currently there are no known
treatments of EVD but there is a range of potential treatments such as; immune therapies,
drug therapies and the usage of blood products
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There are no licensed vaccines available yet but there are currently two
potential vaccines undergoing drug trials
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Once a human host is infected with the virus it is simply passed from human
to human via direct contact (through mucous membranes or broken skin) with
contaminated bodily fluids
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Many health care workers
have become infected by direct contact with contaminated bodily fluids
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What causes an outbreak of EVD?
There are many arguments as to what the cause of the latest outbreak of EVD but the
most common thought is that deforestation is the primary cause of the outbreak
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”
The Take Part website (Take Part, 2014), claims that due to the industry chopping down
the forests in Western Africa for lumber and clear the way for the building of roads, the
infected animals were forced to move their habitat, putting them in closer contact with
human beings, therefore making it more likely for an outbreak to occur
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So the theory that building roads and
forcing animals out of their habitats could increase the odds that humans will somehow
come into contact with infected animals
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Peter Walsh, who studies primate ecology at Cambridge University, argues that EVD is
density dependent
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When it gets in the gorillas, then more gorillas die, [and]
you’ve got a lot of dead gorillas on the ground
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” Instead, outbreaks tend to occur in pristine places, where
small-scale hunters and bushmeat traders can reliably find animals
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However, If Peter Walsh (Take Part, 2014) is right in saying that an EVD outbreak is
caused by animal density levels then would mapping out migration patterns and an areas
animal population be able to predict whether or not an outbreak could occur? It is probable
that mapping out migration patterns could predict whether an outbreak could occur but if
the animals decide to migrate differently due to external sources such as deforestation,
then the idea that you can predict an outbreak based on migration patterns becomes moot
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They say that Western Africa used to be dominated by
dense forests but due to deforestation, the Fruit Bats, Ebola’s main host, that used to live
in these forests were forced to find a new habitat and were likely to come into closer
contact with humans
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However another argument is that the EVD outbreak was caused by humans unknowingly
hunting down infected animals for food and consuming contaminated bushmeat
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There is a great deal of poverty within Western Africa which leads to people doing
whatever it takes to survive and provide for their families
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