Ebola Hemoragic Fever
Viral hemorrhagic fevers are a group of diseases caused by viruses from four families of viruses: filoviruses, arenaviruses, flaviviruses, and bunyaviruses. The usual hosts for most of these viruses are rodents or arthropods (such as ticks and mosquitoes). In some cases, such as Ebola virus, the natural host for the virus is unknown. All forms of viral hemorrhagic fever begin with fever and muscle aches. Depending on the particular virus, the disease can progress until the patient becomes very ill with respiratory problems, severe bleeding, kidney problems, and shock. The severity of viral hemorrhagic fever can range from a mild illness to death.
The Ebola virus is a member of a family of RNA viruses known as filoviruses. Ebola virus was discovered in 1976 and was named for a river in Zaire, Africa, where it was first found.
Until recently, only three outbreaks of Ebola hemorrhagic fever among people had been reported. The first two outbreaks were in 1976: one in Zaire and one in western Sudan. These were large outbreaks, causing more than 550 cases and 340 deaths. The third outbreak, in 1979 in Sudan, was smaller, with 34 cases and 22 fatalities. During each of these outbreaks, a majority of cases occurred in hospital settings under the challenging conditions of the developing world. These conditions, including a lack of medical supplies and the frequent reusing of needles and syringes, played a major role in the spread of disease. The outbreaks were quickly controlled when appropriate medical supplies and equipment were made available and quarantine procedures were used.
The source of the Ebola virus in nature remains unknown. In an attempt to identify the source, investigators tested thousands of specimens from animals captured near the outbreak areas, but their efforts were unsuccessful. Monkeys, like humans, appear to be susceptible to infection. The one thing knowne by scientists which may bring us closer to discovering its carrier is that Ebola falls into the category of filoviruses. Filoviruses are typically carried by rodents and arthropods (ticks, mosquitos).
Symptoms of Ebola hemorrhagic fever begin 4 to 16 days after infection. Persons develop fever, chills, headaches, muscle aches, and loss of appetite. As the disease progresses, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, sore throat, and chest pain can occur. The blood fails to clot and patients may bleed from injection sites as well as into the gastrointestinal tract, skin, and internal organs.
On November 28th, Dr. Peter Jahlring of the Institute was in his lab testing a. virus culture from the monkeys. Much to his horror, the blood tested positive. for the deadly Ebola Zaire virus. Ebola Zaire is the most lethal of all strains. of the Ebola.
In the New York Times interview of Richard Preston, the well renowned author of The Hot Zone, is conducted in order to shed some light on the recent Ebola outbreak and the peaked re-interest in his novel. The Hot Zone is articulated as “thriller like” and “horrifying.” Preston uses similar diction and style choices corresponding with his novel. By choosing to use these specific methods he is advertising and promoting The Hot Zone to the audience members that are interested in reading, and reaching out to those who read and enjoyed his novel. He continuously grabs and keeps the reader’s attention by characterizing and personifying Ebola as the “enemy [and] the invisible monster without a face” in order to give the spectators something to grasp and understand the Ebola virus. Along with characterization, Preston uses descriptions with laminate
The Hot Zone is a true story about how the knowledge of the Ebola virus was first developed and the background behind it. The Ebola virus kills nine out of ten of its victims and it kills quickly and painfully. It is extremely contagious and the blood and vomit the victim lets out can spread the virus quickly. The Hot Zone goes into detail of the experience of getting to the bottom of the Ebola Virus.
Rift Valley Fever is a viral zoonotic disease that is arthropod-borne.1, 2, 3, 4 This viral disease primarily affects domestic animals but has the ability to affect humans.1, 3, 4 The severity of the disease can range from mild to severe and can be potentially fatal.1 An epidemic in the animal population, also known as an epizootic, could result in increased economic loss as the disease leads to livestock death and spontaneous abortion among pregnant animals .1, 2, 3, 4 A reduction in trade could also result contributing to further economic loss.1, 2, 3, 4 The virus which causes Rift Valley Fever is in the family Bunyaviridae and the genus Phlebovirus.1, 2, 3, 4, 5
A person who has been infected by the disease may experience signs of fatigue, loss of appetite, fever, sore throat, swollen lymph nodes, and a red rash that appears blotchy. Generally the signs become present between ten and twenty-one days after the person has been exposed to and infected by the virus (Silverstein et al., 1998). This is what is known as the incubation period (Plum, J., 2001). The rash is most likely to begin on the chest, back, or the scalp, but will soon spread to the rest of the body. After a couple days of having physical evidence of the infection, the rash will s...
Ebola, a virus which acquires its name from the Ebola River (located in Zaire, Africa), first emerged in September 1976, when it erupted simultaneously in 55 villages near the headwaters of the river. It seemed to come out of nowhere, and resulted in the deaths of nine out of every ten victims. Although it originated over 20 years ago, it still remains as a fear among African citizens, where the virus has reappeared occasionally in parts of the continent. In fact, and outbreak of the Ebola virus has been reported in Kampala, Uganda just recently, and is still a problem to this very day. Ebola causes severe viral hemorrhagic fevers in humans and monkeys, and has a 90 % fatality rate. Though there is no cure for the disease, researchers have found limited medical possibilities to help prevent one from catching this horrible virus.
The early symptoms of Ebola hemorrhagic fever are characterized by high fever, chills, malaise and myalgia. The next phase of the disease is characterizes by hematemesis, (the vomiting of blood), diarrhea with blood, abdominal pain, and drained of physical strength, sore throat, edema, confusion, and uncontrolled bleeding at venipuncture sites (Bardi, 2002; Hensley, Jones, Feldmann, Jahrling, & Geisbert, 2005).
The Ebola Virus is an extremely deadly virus found in Africa. There have been multiple outbreaks across Africa and one in the United States. The Ebola virus basically causes uncontrollable bleeding externally and internally. Then your organs become liquefied. This usually results in death(www.encyclopedia.com). The following report contains info on the characteristics and history of the Ebola Virus.
The Ebola virus and Marburg virus are the two known members of the Filovirus family. Marburg is a relative of the Ebola virus. The four strains of Ebola are Ebola Zaire, Ebola Sudan, Ebola Reston, and Ebola Tai. Each one is named after the location where it was discovered. These filoviruses cause hemorrhagic fever, which is actually what kills victims of the Ebola virus. Hemorrhagic fever is defined as a group of viral aerosol infections, characterized by fever, chills, headache, fatigue, and respiratory symptoms. This is followed by capillary hemorrhages, and, in severe infection, kidney failure, hypotension, and, possibly, death. The incubation period for Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever ranges from 2-21 days. The blood fails to clot and patients may bleed from injection sites and into the gastrointestinal tract, skin and internal organs. Massive destruction of the liver is one distinct symptom of Ebola. This virus does in ten days what it takes AIDS ten years to do. It also requires bio-safety level four containment, the highest and most dangerous level. HIV the virus that causes AIDS requires only a bio-safety level of two. In reported outbreaks, 50%-90% of cases have been fatal.
The Ebola Haemorrahagic Fever, or Ebola for short, was first recognized as a virus in 1967. The first breakout that caused the Ebola virus to be recognized was in Zaire with 318 people infected and 280 killed. There are five subtypes of the Ebola virus, but only four of them affect humans. There are the Ebola-Zaire, Ebola-Sudan, Ebola-Ivory Coast and the Ebola-Bundibugyo. The fifth one, the Ebola-Reston, only affects nonhuman primates. The Ebola-Zaire was recognized on August 26, 1976 with a 44 year old schoolteacher as the first reported case. The Ebola-Sudan virus was also recognized in 1976 and was thought to be that same as Ebola-Zaire and it is thought to have broken out in a cotton factory in the Sudan. The Ebola-Ivory Coast was first discovered in 1994 in chimpanzees in the Tia Forest in Africa. On November 24, 2007, the Ebola-Bundibugyo branch was discovered with an approximate total of 116 people infected in the first outbreak and 39 deaths. The Ebola-Reston is the only one of the five subtypes to not affect humans, only nonhuman primates. It first broke out in Reston, Virginia in 1989 among crab eating macaques.
This virus is similar to Ebola, because it started in the same place. Lab workers in Germany, in 1967, contracted the new virus while working with African Green Monkeys, which had the virus. The virus is described as a hemorrhagic fever. It has a fatality rate up to 90% and spreads through human to human contact. The first symptoms can be as simple as a fever and a headache, then can progress to organ failure, and fatal internal bleeding.
In 1976 the first two Ebola outbreaks were recorded. In Zaire and western Sudan five hundred and fifty people reported the horrible disease. Of the five hundred and fifty reported three hundred and forty innocent people died. Again in 1995 Ebola reportedly broke out in Zaire, this time infecting over two hundred and killing one hundred and sixty. (Bib4, Musilam, 1)
Marburg hemorrhagic fever (Marburg HF) is a rare but acute hemorrhagic fever that affects both humans and primates. Transmission is mainly human-to-human, resulting from close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected persons. Illness caused by Marburg virus begins abruptly, with high fever, severe headache and severe malaise. The individuals at the highest risk of transmission include family members and hospital staff who care for patients infected with Marburg virus. Individuals who have close interaction with African fruit bat, human patients, or non-human primates disease-ridden with Marburg Virus are at risk. The variance diagnoses usually consist of malaria, typhoid fever, shigellosis, cholera,
According to the World Health Organization (2014) “Ebola first took place in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks, one in Nzara, Sudan.., in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. [and the] latter occurred in a village near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name”. The disease has also started spreading through countries such as Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia (which are West African countries). The United States of America had their first case of Ebola on September 30, 2014, when a man traveling back from Liberia was diagnosed with the disease in Dallas, Texas (CDC 2014). The man did not show symptoms until he reached the United States.
Yellow Fever is a viral infection that is caused from the bite of an infected female mosquito, they are mainly found in areas of Africa and South America. There are three main types of the Yellow Fever virus: Sylvatic yellow fever, Intermediate yellow fever, and Urban yellow fever. Sylvatic yellow fever also known as jungle yellow fever is started by mosquitoes breeding in tree holes in areas, such as banana plantations; monkeys become infected when they are bitten by an infected mosquito, it continues to spread as uninfected mosquitoes bite and infected monkeys; then the process comes to humans where they become exposed to the virus when they are bitten by and infected mosquitos. The intermediate cycle are only in Africa and is also called