Ebola Virus

• Ebola virus disease is a contagious disease caused by a virus of the family Filoviridae that is responsible for a severe viral hemorrhagic fever.

• Ebola was first appeared in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks, in Nzara, Sudan, and in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. The latter was in a village situated near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name.

• The disease, also known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever or Ebola virus, kills up to 90% of people who are infected. EVD outbreaks occur primarily in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests.

• The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission. Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are considered to be the natural host of the Ebola virus.

• Till now no Ebola virus-specific treatment exists. No licensed specific treatment or vaccine is available for use in people or animals.

• Symptoms may appear anywhere from 2 to 21 days after exposure to ebola virus though 8 to 10 days is most common after contracting the virus, with a fever, sore throat, muscle pain, and headaches.

• From 1976 through 2013, the World Health Organization reported a total of 1,716 cases of ebola. The largest outbreak to date is the ongoing 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak, which is affecting Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Nigeria.

• The recent outbreak was first detected on 6 December 2013 in Guinea, a western African nation. On August 8, following a sudden rise in cases the World Health Organization announced the outbreak of a public health emergency of international concern.

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