Ebola Virus: Nine things you should know about the deadly disease
CNN Isha Sesay will host a program of special coverage Ebola outbreak in West Africa on Monday, August 25 at 2:30 pm Tune ET / 19:30 BST.
(CNN) - Hundreds of people have died as the worst outbreak of Ebola virus in history sweeps through West Africa.
It began as a handful of cases in Guinea in March, but quickly spread to neighboring Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Here are nine things you should know about what the World Health Organization calls "one of the most virulent diseases in the world."
Why generate Ebola that fear?
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Ebola describes as "one of the deadliest diseases in the world."
"It's a very contagious virus that can kill up to 90% of people who contract it, causing terror among infected communities," he says.
Nor is there a vaccine against it.
Of the five subtypes of Ebola Zaire strain the - the first to be identified - is considered the most lethal.
The WHO said that preliminary tests on the Ebola virus in Guinea in March suggested that the blast occurred this strain, although this has not been confirmed.
What is Ebola?
The Ebola virus causes viral hemorrhagic fever, which, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), refers to a group of viruses that affect multiple organ systems in the body and is often accompanied by bleeding.
The virus is named after the Ebola River in the Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire), where there was one of the first outbreaks in 1976, the same year there was another outbreak in Sudan.
The WHO says that there are five different strains of the virus - the name of the areas that originated in three of them have been associated with large outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever in Africa..
These are the Bundibugyo - an area of Uganda where the virus was discovered in 2007 - Sudan and Zaire subtypes.
There has been a case of isolation of EbolaIvory Coast. This subtype was discovered when a researcher studying wild chimpanzees became ill in 1994, after the autopsy of one of the animals. The researcher was recovered.
Finally, Reston Ebola Reston is the name of the American state of Virginia, where he was identified this fifth strain of Ebola virus in monkeys imported from the Philippines. The CDC says that while humans have been infected with the Ebola Reston, there have been no cases of human illness or death of this subtype.
What are the symptoms of Ebola?
Early symptoms include sudden onset of fever, weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. These symptoms may appear two to 21 days after infection.
The WHO says these early nonspecific symptoms may be mistaken for signs of diseases such as malaria, typhoid, meningitis or even the plague.
MSF says some patients may also develop a rash, red eyes, hiccups, chest pains and difficulty breathing and swallowing.
Early symptoms progress to vomiting, diarrhea, impaired kidney and liver function and sometimes bleeding internally and externally.
Ebola can only definitively confirm five different laboratory tests.
How is it?
There are no specific treatments for Ebola. MSF says patients are isolated and then with the support of health workers.
"This is the hydration of the patient, maintaining their oxygen status and blood pressure and treating them for any infection that might complicate" he says.
There have been cases of health care workers become infected patients, and WHO has published a guide for dealing with suspected or confirmed cases of the virus.
Caregivers are advised to wear waterproof clothing and gloves and to wear face protection, such as goggles or a medical mask to avoid splashes to nose, mouth and eyes.
MSF said containing an outbreak in Uganda 2012 by placing a control area around its center of treatment. An outbreak is considered over after 42 days - twice the incubation period of the disease - have passed without any new cases.
What medications are available to combat the disease?
Two American missionary workers infected with Ebola were given an experimental drug called ZMapp which seems to have saved their lives. The drug, developed by a company in San Diego, had never been attempted before in humans, but showed promise in small experiments with monkeys.
But the deployment of an unproven drug for a massive outbreak would also be very difficult, according to MSF. Experimental drugs are generally not mass produced, and tracking the success of a drug like uses require additional medical staff where resources are already scarce. ZMapp manufacturer says it has very few doses ready for patient use.
There are other experimental drugs. Tekmira, a company based in Vancouver that has a $ 140 million contract with the Department of Defense of the United States to develop a drug Ebola, Phase 1 trials began with its drug in January. However, the FDA recently suspended judgment, requesting additional information.
At least a possible Ebola vaccine has been tested in healthy human volunteers, according to Thomas Geisbert, a leading researcher at the University of Texas Medical Branch. And last week, the NIH announced that a safety trial of another vaccine against Ebola will start from September.
And in March, the National Institutes of Health, USA granted a five-year, $ 28 million grant to establish a collaboration between researchers from 15 institutions that were working to fight Ebola.
"Everything a menu of antibodies have been identified as potentially therapeutic, and researchers are eager to find out which combinations are most effective and why," said a press release about the grant.
How Ebola virus spread?
WHO says it is believed that fruit bats may be the natural host of the Ebola virus in Africa, passing the virus to other animals.
Ebola contract humans through contact with body fluids of infected animals or body fluids of infected humans.
MSF says that although it is believed that the virus is able to survive for several days in the fluid outside of an infected organism, chlorination, heat, direct sunlight, soaps and detergents can kill.
MSF epidemiologistsaid Kamiliny Kalahne outbreaks usually spread in areas where hospitals have poor infection control and limited access to resources such as running water.
"People who get sick with it almost always know how they got sick: because they looked after someone in your family who was very ill - I had diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding - or because they were health workers who had much contact with a sick patient, "he said.
Can passenger airplane infected?
While the CDC acknowledges that it is possible that a person infected with Ebola in West Africa person could get on a plane and come to another country, the chances of the virus spreading during the trip are low.
"It is highly unlikely that they would be able to transmit the disease to other passengers," said Stephen Monroe, deputy director of the CDC National Center for Emerging Zoonotic and Infectious Diseases.
"The Ebola virus is transmitted by direct contact with blood, secretions or body fluids of sick people, and indirect contacts. - Eg needles and other things that may be contaminated with these fluids"
He added that most people who have been infected with Ebola living with or caring for a sick patient.
"This is not an airborne transmission," said Dr. Marty Cetron, director of the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, CDC. "There needs to be a frequent direct contact with body fluids or blood."
Travellers should take precautions to avoid outbreak areas and avoid contact with Ebola patients.
"It's very unlikely that someone suffering these symptoms would feel well enough to travel," IATA said in a statement.
"In the rare event that an Ebola virus-infected person was unknowingly airborne, WHO advises that risks to other passengers are low. Nevertheless, WHO is advising the public health authorities to carry out contact track in such cases. "
This means determining who had contact with the affected person.
What should the flight crew in the event of suspected Ebola infection?
The CDC has published a guide for airline crews on Ebola virus infections.
"Like many other global outbreaks of infectious diseases, airlines, crew, airports can be very important partners in that line," Cetron said. "Be polite, know the symptoms, recognize what to do, have a response protocol, knowing who to call, those are really important parts of the global containment strategy to deal with threats like this."
The airline cleaning crew use disposable gloves is also instructed, clean surfaces including armrests, seat backs, shelves and light switches. The CDC says that packages and cargo must not pose a risk unless the items have been soiled with blood or body fluids.
When someone gets sick on a flight, the captain is required by aviation regulations to report the suspected case to the air traffic control, according to IATA.
What is the risk of Ebola on a plane?
How many cases have there been?
The CDC estimates that have been more than 3,000 cases of Ebola and more than 2,000 deaths since 1976.
Recent outbreaks before the current in Guinea were in 2012 - in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Uganda outbreak involved a total of 24 confirmed and probable cases and 17 deaths, according to WHO, which declared that had ended in October 2012.
MSF said the outbreak in Uganda was the Sudan strain, while the virus found in the DRC was the sub-type of Bundibugyo.
Before 2014, the outbreak was thedeadliest outbreak of 1976 in the then Zaire, where 280 of 318 people infected died, according to the CDC. In 2000, there were 425 cases of Ebola Sudan in Uganda, which resulted in 224 deaths.
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