Ebola: Keep Calm and Learn the Facts.

There’s a lot of justifiable fear out there. This is to hopefully increase your knowledge and decrease your fear.

Yes, I know that isn’t easy. The first time I encountered the saying “Knowledge Prevents Fear” was at the entrance to the wonderful Disneyland known as Jump School. My first reaction (and others’) was “R-i-i-i-i-ght!” (Cosby inflection here).

We’ve known about it since 1976 when it first emerged in 284 people in Sudan and Zaire. It was named after the Ebola River in Zaire, where it exhibited a 53% mortality rate. A few months later, a variant was found (EBOZ) which had an 88% mortality rate. While dogs can harbor the virus, you can’t get it from them, and it can live for a few days on surfaces, but catching it that way has a very, very low probability. EBO-R (Reston) was found in 1989 in monkeys from Mindanao (Philippines) which were imported into the US. The latest strain is EBO-CI (Ivory Coast) accidentally contracted by a person doing an autopsy on a dead chimpanzee. Other animal vectors? Bats. Don’t eat bats, or animals which can harbor the virus.

OK, then. Let’s start. Ebola (and its first cousin the Marburg virus) are classed as hemorrhagic fever viruses. There are other classifications, but this one will do. It is only transmitted through contact with the body fluids of those exhibiting symptoms of the disease.

These symptoms become apparent 2-21 days after exposure to the body fluids if those with the disease, or those who died of it:

• Fever (greater than 38.6°C or 101.5°F)
• Severe headache
• Muscle pain
• Weakness
• Diarrhea
• Vomiting
• Abdominal (stomach) pain
• Unexplained hemorrhage (bleeding or bruising)

Symptoms may appear anywhere from 2 to 21 days after exposure to Ebola, but the average is 8 to 10 days. – CDC

Transmission:

• blood or body fluids (including but not limited to urine, saliva, feces, vomit, and semen) of a person who is sick with Ebola
• objects (like needles and syringes) that have been contaminated with the virus
• infected animals
• Ebola is not spread through the air or by water, or in general, food. However, in Africa, Ebola may be spread as a result of handling bush meat (wild animals hunted for food) and contact with infected bats.

Diagnosing Ebola in an person who has been infected for only a few days is difficult, because the early symptoms, such as fever, are nonspecific to Ebola infection and are seen often in patients with more commonly occurring diseases, such as malaria and typhoid fever.

However, if a person has the early symptoms of Ebola and has had contact with the blood or body fluids of a person sick with Ebola, contact with objects that have been contaminated with the blood or body fluids of a person sick with Ebola, or contact with infected animals and a travel history to places where the disease is active, they should be isolated and public health professionals notified. Samples from the patient can then be collected and tested to confirm infection.

Also, an epidemiologic team from the CDC will appear and will get the list of contacts and who should be observed for symptom appearance.

Diagnosis:

The clinical presentation, travel/contact history and specific blood testing after symptoms start.

Treatment:

The treatment is mainly supportive.

• Providing intravenous fluids (IV)and balancing electrolytes (body salts)
• Maintaining oxygen status and blood pressure
• Treating other infections if they occur

Some experimental treatments developed for Ebola have been tested and proven effective in animals but have not yet been tested in randomized trials in humans. Also, two Americans have been treated with serum from recovered patients and an experimental drug and have recovered well, to normal function without damage.

However, recovery from Ebola (and any acute infection, for that matter) depends on the patient’s immune response. People who recover from Ebola infection develop antibodies that last for at least 10 years, possibly longer.

Prevention:

Clearly, hygiene and Universal precautions are of greatest importance:

• Practice careful hygiene. Avoid contact with blood and body fluids.
• Do not handle items that may have come in contact with an infected person’s blood or body fluids.
• Avoid funeral or burial rituals that require handling the body of someone who has died from Ebola.
• Avoid contact with bats and nonhuman primates or blood, fluids, and raw meat prepared from these animals.
• Avoid hospitals where Ebola patients are being treated. The U.S. embassy or consulate is often able to provide advice on facilities.
• After you return, monitor your health for 21 days and seek medical care immediately if you develop the symptoms of Ebola.
• Notify health officials if you have had contact with a person diagnosed as having contracted Ebola, or with any body fluids of such a patient.

The source for this was the CDC…plus my memory.