"You have to admire its simplicity. It's one billionth our size and it's beating us." - - Spoken by Colonel Sam Daniels, a character in the fictional movie about Ebola, Outbreak.
The Ebola virus is the most feared virus of our time. What exactly is Ebola? Ebola is a viral hemorrhagic fever actually named after the River Ebola in Zaire, Africa, where it was first discovered. It belongs to a genus of ribonucleic viruses called filoviruses, under the family Filofiridae, which are characterized by their filament-like (thread-like) appearance with a little hook or loop at the end. Only five viruses exist in this family: the not-as-deadly Marburg, and the four Ebola strains: Ebola Zaire, Ebola Sudan, Ebola Tai and Ebola Reston. The latter only affects monkeys and hence is not harmful to man. (Ebola-Reston-infected monkeys display symptoms similar to the symptoms of the Ebola- Zaire virus shown in humans.)
The first emergence of Ebola into the modern world took place in 1976, its 'grand entrance' in the form of two major outbreaks which happened almost simultaneously in Zaire and western Sudan, Africa. The mortality rate was 88% in Zaire and 53% in Sudan. More than 550 cases were reported and more than 340 died. The third outbreak took place in Sudan in the same area as before, resulting in 34 cases and 22 deaths. More recently, outbreaks have occurred in Kikwit, Zaire in 1994, and Gabon in 1994 and 1996. The most recent outbreak may have possibly taken place in Congo in early 1999; a virus similar to Ebola killed 63 people. There has only been one recorded case of Ebola Tai infection: in 1994, a Swiss researcher caught the virus after conducting an autopsy on a chimpanzee in the Tai Forest, Ivory Coast. She was given intensiv...
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...he members of Minds in Motion Program at the New York University High School Math, Science, Technology Program in the summer of 1997
http://www.nyu.edu/education/mindsinmotion/ebola/index.html
8) EBOLA HAEMORRHAGIC FEVER
By: World Health Organization (WHO) Geneva
Fact Sheet 103
Revised September 1997
© WHO/OMS, 1998
http://www.who.int/inf-fs/en/fact103.html
9) Dr. Frederick A. Murphy Talks about the Ebola Virus
An Interview by Sean Henahan, Access Excellence
http://www.accessexcellence.org/WN/NM/interview_murphy.html
10) History of Ebola Outbreaks
http://www.seorf.ohiou.edu/~af326/history.html
11) Image of the Ebola Virus
© WHO/OMS, 1998
http://www.who.int/emc/diseases/sbola/ebolapic.html
12) Map of Zaire, Africa
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/africa/Zaire.GIF
13) Outbreak (1995)
U.S. Movie Poster (1 sheet)
http://www.imdb.com/
The viruses are spread in many different ways in the novel, but all are due to human mistakes. One of the most common forms of errors found in the medical field is the recycling of soiled equipment. The repeated use of dirty medical equipment is found commonly in the poor regions of the world where resources are limited and fundings are bound. This is an example of the errors the human race performs that lead to disaster.
The fight against the zombie metaphor within World War Z gives the reader a purpose for finding a way to hold on to hope, and to ultimately celebrate life, ideally a healthy one, itself. With the zombie metaphor referring to uncontrollable fears in today’s modern society, the thriller is a realistic speculation about an airborne virus entering the human species and spreading on a global scale. With influenza outbreaks being a familiar scenario within modern society, the fear of an uncontrollable disease sends shockwaves of fear through the human race, especially when a vaccine has yet to be found and distributed, as in the film. The fear of a viral infection spreading stems from the idea that people do not simply “give” another individual the virus; a virus is a form of life that evolves and mutates in order to survive environmental changes.
It is so lethal that nine out of ten of its victims die. Later, geniuses at USAMRIID found out that it wasn't Zaire! but a new strain of Ebola. which they named Ebola Reston. This was added to the list of strains: Ebola.
Plague is here and we’ve got to make a stand, that’s obvious. Ah, I only wish everything were as simple!” (Camus, 134). Grand’s job on the “sanitary squads” may have been a small sacrifice, yet it represented something so much larger than himself. Since he was an older man with not much to give, he gave all he was able to because it was the right thing to do.
Quammen takes a more clinical and realistic tone in regard to the Ebola crisis of 2014. By speaking in a more clinical tone he his is increasing his credibility to the audience. Quammen takes time to point out the overall dramatic moments in Preston’s novel. In comparison to Preston, Quammen takes time in the interview to promote his own novel Ebola: The Natural and human history of a deadly virus to the audience. He points this out with the intent to correct the panic and fear that Preston created. He mainly addresses the skeptics of The Hot Zone along with terrified population. Quammen states, and believes, that Ebola is the “dress rehearsal” of dieses yet to come. He doesn’t romanticize the Ebola viruses, he simple states that it needs to be “controlled and stopped”, he does not create Ebola into a disease that needs to be feared. He believes that through Preston’s novel Ebola is miscocepted and interrupted. He is attempting to change the fear into
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.
Griss, Susan. Minds in Motion: A Kinesthetic Approach to Teaching Elementary Curriculum. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1998.
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.
Ebola from everyone’s point of view is seen as inferno. Dr. Steven Hatch’s memorable journey began with him volunteering to leave for Liberia in 2013 to work at a hospital in Monrovia to fight Ebola in one of its most affected areas. There were only a few patients with Ebola when he arrived. The number of patients rapidly increased over his time in Liberia. After six months Ebola was declared a world health emergency and not only were ordinary people outside of the hospital getting the virus but the medical personnel that were tending to the patients had caught it and some of them had even died.
Goldstine, Herman H. "Computers at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School." The Jayne Lecture. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol 136, No.1. January 24, 1991
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)
Ebola started its first outbreak in West Africa. 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 witch the disease takes its name”. The disease has also started spreading through countries such as Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia (which are West Africa countries).
The Ebola virus originated in the depths of the Democratic Republic of the Congo along the Ebola River. Little else is known about its origin but researchers believe that it was first transmitted from a non-human primate or bat. The virus can be contracted several ways including direct contact and contact with infected blood or bodily fluid. It is easy as accidently touching infected saliva or changing a Band-Aid on an infected person. Symptoms of the virus can range greatly but fever, headache, diarrhea, vomiting, and unexplained hemorrhaging are some of the most common. The Ebola virus attacks the body through the immune system, eventually breaking down everything in its path starting with the immune cells. The virus could ultimately