Nathan Miller

A highly lethal virus that causes massive internal

hemorrhaging,1976, named for Ebola River valley in Con

go, where it was first studied.

This virus was originally not in the U.S, but now there

are a few cases of people being diagnosed with it in the

U.S.

I chose this topic because I feel that it could

possible effect us in the near future.

We should care because the virus has been

brought to the U.S and now it has the possibility

to spread throughout the U.S.

The Ebola River is located in the northern part of the

Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ebola virus is named after this river since this was the

first place where the virus was discovered.

The virus, when it was discovered, had spread to

around 55 villages situated around the banks of the

river.

This river was earlier named Zaire River

during 1971 to 1997 based on the then

government called Zaire.

The Zaire or Congo River, which is now

known as the Ebola River, is in Western

Central Africa and it is the largest river in

Western Central Africa.

There are five different sub-types of Ebola in

the world today.

They are named by the location they were

identified in.

They are: Zaire ebolavirus

Sudan ebolavirus

Bundibugyo ebolavirus

Reston ebolavirus

Tai Forest ebolavirus

It is endemic in the Democratic Republic of the

Congo, Gabon, or the Republic of the Congo.

It has a genomic sequence that differs from the

type virus by less than 30%.

The Zaire strain of the Ebola Virus is the

deadliest.

The species was introduced in 1998 as Sudan

Ebola Virus.

It is endemic in Sudan and Uganda.

It has a genomic sequence different from Ebola

virus by greater than 30%.

BDBV made its first appearance on August 1 of 2007, when

a viral hemorrhagic fever outbreak began in the

Bundibugyo and Kikyo townships of Bundibugyo district in

western Uganda.

The outbreak of this type was declared over on February

20, 2008, and then a second outbreak of it started in

August of 2012 in Province Orientale, DRC.

Reston virus is named after Reston, Virginia, US,

where the virus was first discovered.

Despite its status as a level-4 organism, Reston virus

is non-pathogenic to humans, though hazardous to

monkeys.

The Ebola-Reston virus is also the only subtype that

will not cause illness in humans—it only affects

animals.

The species was introduced in 1998 as Cote d'Ivoire Ebola

virus.

The name was proposed to be changed to Tai Forest

ebolavirus in 2010 and this proposal was immediately

accepted by the ICTV.

It is classified as a Tai Forest species if it has a genomic

sequence different than ebolavirus by 30% and different

than the genomic sequence of Tai Forest virus by less than

30%.

79%

53%

27%

0% 0%

Zaire

EbolavirusSudan

Ebolavirus

Bundibugyo

Ebolavirus

Reston

Ebolavirus

Tai Forest

Ebolavirus

Ebola symptoms can take as long as three

weeks to appear. Disease symptoms

include:

Diarrhea

Fever

Headache

Muscle pain

Stomach pain

Vomiting

Unexplained bleeding or bruising

The virus is known as a “zoonotic” virus because it’s

transmitted to humans from animals.

Since people may handle these infected animals, the

virus can be transmitted via the animal’s blood and

body fluids.

Humans can also transfer the virus to each other.

Once people become infected with Ebola, they

can transmit it to others if people come in

contact with their:

breast milk

feces

saliva

semen

sweat

urine

vomit

Ebola patients become walking human-to-human virus

transmitters as soon as they begin to show symptoms, and remain

contagious even after death.

Everyone they come in contact with has to be monitored or they

could end up spreading the virus to more people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0Q0yA_jJ2U

To prevent the spread of the disease, they must train

medical staff, test crisis plans, and communicate with the

public.

All that must be accomplished by a public health

workforce diminished by years of budget cuts.

City, county, and state health departments employ almost

60,000 fewer people than they did in 2008, a drop of

almost 20%.

The decline is a consequence of the recession, which cut tax revenue

to state and local governments, and the drive for austerity in

Congress, which has led to lower federal spending on health

preparedness.

In 2007 the two federal programs that help local officials plan for

public health emergencies—Public Health Emergency Preparedness

grants and the Hospital Preparedness Program—gave states and cities

$1.3 billion, according to the National Association of County and City

Health Officials. For the budget year that began on Oct. 1, that

shrank to $800 million.

www.businessweek.com/videos/2014-10-15/ebola-failure-whos-

in-charge-here-no-one

The Ebola virus outbreak that’s ravaging West Africa

probably started with a single infected person, a new

genetic analysis shows.

This West African variant can be traced genetically to

a single introduction, perhaps a person infected by a

bat, researchers report in the journal Science.

In Sierra Leone, it started with a traditional healer,

says virologist Robert Garry of Tulane University, one

of the researchers on the report. The healer treated

patients from across the border in Guinea, where an

outbreak of Ebola had started in February. Her

patients flocked to her funeral, and 14 became

infected as they prepared and buried the healer’s

body, Garry said.

The Ebola virus does not have a cure or vaccine at this time.

Instead, measures are taken to keep the person as comfortable

as possible.

Supportive care measures include:

Giving medications to maintain blood pressure.

Managing electrolyte balances.

Providing extra oxygen, if needed.

Providing intravenous fluids to prevent dehydration.

Treating co-existing infections and preventing other infections from

occurring.

When it is known that someone has come in contact

with another person, or that a person has the Ebola

Virus, safety measures are greatly taken.

They isolate this person and closely monitor them

keeping them out of contact with anyone else for a

certain period of time.

Ebola is a rare but deadly virus that causes bleeding

inside of and outside the body.

As the virus spreads through the body, it damages the

immune system and organs.

Ultimately, it causes levels of blood-clotting cells to

drop. This leads to severe, uncontrollable bleeding.

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/ebola-fever-

virus-infection

Losing about a fifth or more of the normal amount of

blood in your body causes hypovolemic shock.

Hypovolemic shock is an emergency condition in

which severe blood and fluid loss make the heart

unable to pump enough blood to the body. This type

of shock can cause many organs to stop working.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000167.htm

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/where-did-ebola-come-

likely-one-person-gene-study-finds-n191161

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/

http://www.healthline.com/health/ebola-hemorrhagic-fever#Treatments6

http://www.rocketswag.com/medicine/disease-prevention/infectious-

diseases/virus/ebola/Where-Is-The-Ebola-River-Located.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaire_ebolavirus

http://www.popsci.com/article/science/how-did-deadliest-strain-ebola-travel-

central-west-africa\

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundibugyo_virus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reston_virus

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/ebola-fever-virus-infection

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta%C3%AF_Forest_ebolavirus