Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever

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Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever

• Calvin Hu
• Period 4
• Human Disease Project

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Whats Ebola?

• Ebola is the most lethal virus known to man.
• It kills 50 to 90 percent of the infected
  personnel, compared to Anthraxs 25 percent.
• Outbreaks occurred all over central Africa.
• Named after the Ebola River, a tributary of the
  Congo River.
• Believed to be primate deadly. Monkeys have
  infected many doctors, scientists, and monkey
  care handlers.

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Ebola The Virus Itself

• Transmitted via direct contact with skin and
  blood.
• A virus is a simple submicroscopic parasite that
  often cause disease.
• A virus feeds of a host to duplicate itself, and
  then those viruses infect another cell to create
  more and more
• Ebola, unlike other viruses, resembles a thread
  instead of a peppercorn. Scientists have dubbed
  Ebola the shepherds rod, due to its shape.
• First photographed by Dr. Murphy.

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History

• First identified in Sudan.
• Outbreaks occurred all over Sudan, Zaire, Congo,
  Gabon, and the Ivory Coast.
• Between 1976 and 1996, over 1000 deaths have been
  recorded.

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The Symptoms

• Symptoms are abrupt and unexpected.
• Incubation signs of disease between 2 and 21
  days.
• Starts with red eyes, then leads to fever,
  headache, flu-like symptoms, fatigue,
  internal/external bleeding, massive hemorrhage
  (uncontrollable bleeding).
• The infected body is also corroding away from the
  inside. A cadaver's internal organs have been
  compared to black and red tapioca pudding.

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Cures and Treatments

• There is no cure for Ebola.
• Due to the extreme biohazard, doctors must wear
  Level 4 containment suits. They are the
  equivalence of a spacesuit.
• Some poor African towns put the diseased in a
  straw hut, and then burn it down when theyre
  dead. Simple yet effective.

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Treatments (continued)

• If you think you have Ebola, youd be dead by
  now.
• If you know someone with Ebola, you better check
  again. Maybe a day or a week later, youll be
  saying I knew someone with Ebola
• It will cost a lot of money to keep someone with
  Ebola alive. Youll need specialized scientists,
  proper equipment, labs, etc.. Not to mention
  its a hopeless cause anyway.

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Future Research

• Scientists have run tests on bats by infecting
  them with Ebola. The bats have shown a
  significant immune response, which leads
  scientists to believe that bats might be the
  carrier.
• Extensive ecological studies are currently under
  way in Côte d'Ivoire to identify the reservoir of
  Ebola. Studies to identify the reservoir of
  Marburg virus, a closely related filovirus are
  being conducted in the Democratic Republic of the
  Congo.

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Summary

• Ebola is a very lethal virus. Ebola resembles a
  thread, unlike other viruses.
• Outbreaks in central Africa between 1976 and 1996
  killed over 1000 people.
• The main symptoms are hemorrhage and fever.
• Ebola is cureless.

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THE END