It first appeared in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks - in
Nzara, Sudan; and in Yambuku, in the Democratic Republic
of Congo. The latter was in a village situated near the Ebola
River, from which the disease takes its name.
It is mainly found in tropical Central and West Africa, and
can have a 90 per cent mortality rate - although it is now at
about 60 per cent.
HOW IT IS TRANSMITTED?
The virus is known to live in fruit bats, and normally affects
people living in or near tropical rainforests.
It is introduced into the human population through close
contact with the sweat, blood, secretions, organs or other
bodily fluids of infected animals such as chimpanzees,
gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines
found ill or dead or in the rainforest.
The virus then spreads in the community through human-to-
human transmission, with infection resulting from direct
contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) and
indirect contact with environments contaminated with such
fluids.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the disease is not
contagious until a person begins to show symptoms.
A big problem in West Africa is that burial ceremonies, in
which mourners have direct contact with the body of the
deceased person, can increase the spread of the disease
because a person can transmit the virus even after death.
Men who have recovered from the disease can still transmit
the virus through their semen for up to seven weeks after
recovery from illness.
Ebola kills indiscriminately, but women are particularly
badly affected. Because it is transmitted through bodily
fluids, it spreads easily to people caring for the sick. In West
Africa, it is generally women that prepare dead bodies for
funeral and look after ailing members of their communities.
WHAT DOES IT DO TO YOUR BODY?
Symptoms begin with fever, muscle pain and a sore throat,
then rapidly escalate to vomiting, diarrhoea and internal
and external bleeding.
The incubation period, that is, the time interval from
infection with the virus to onset of symptoms, is from two to
21 days.
Health workers are at serious risk of contracting the disease
- two American doctors have already contracted it, and a
Liberian medic has died. Sierra Leone announced on July 23
Sheik Umar Khan, the doctor leading the fight against Ebola
in the country, had himself contracted the disease following
the deaths of several nurses at the treatment centre where
he works.
Early treatment improves a patient's chances of survival.
HOW IT IS TREATED?
There is no vaccine or cure, and testing to confirm the virus
must be done with the highest level of biohazard protection.
Severely ill patients require intensive supportive. Patients
are frequently dehydrated and require oral rehydration with
solutions containing electrolytes or intravenous fluids.
A significant problem with the current outbreak is families
lose faith in Western medicine, which cannot yet cure the
patients. They then take them home to traditional village
healers, which often leads the disease to spread.
Where have there been outbreaks before?
The WHO is calling this the largest outbreak ever recorded of
the disease.
But there have been sporadic outbreaks before - mainluy in
Uganda, the DRC, Sudan and Gabon.
The worst previous outbreak, in 2000 in Uganda, saw 425
people infected, of which just over half died. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/10995322/What-is-the-Ebola-virus-and-how-worried-should-we-be.html