SSB Interview Do you have it in you?
Ebola virus disease (EVD) is hemorrhagic fever caused by Ebola virus that kills most of the infected people and has a fatality rate of about 60 to 90 percent. The first Ebola virus outbreak occurred simultaneously in Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo in the year 1976. Fruit bats (mammals like bats) are believed to be the natural hosts for this deadly virus. At the last count, the Ebola outbreak has killed at least 1229 people in total.
Why the name Ebola?
The Name “Ebola” is derived from the river Ebola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo lies on the river Ebola.
There are five species of the virus that causes Ebola disease, four of which causes disease in Humans. The one responsible for the ongoing outbreak in West Africa is called Zaire Ebola Virus. This virus has highest fatality rate amongst all the Ebola viruses.
The situation got worst when Ebola virus disease spread in West African nation Guinea in December last year and then spread to the neighboring countries Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The Worst affected Place
Kailahun, a poor but resourceful trading post in Sierra Leone a few months ago found itself at the epicenter of the worst ever outbreaks of the feared Ebola virus. The Government of Sierra Leone has sealed the boundaries of Kailahun and neighboring Kenema as the part of an emergency quarantine. No one can get in or out from the eastern districts of Kailahun and Kenema without special government permission.
On 4th of August 2014 the World Bank pledged as much as $200 million to fight Ebola and urged the whole world for to provide help to fight deadly Ebola, but after decades of civil wars in West Africa, outsiders and authorities are attacked by the villagers which created a fear in minds of International NGOs and other humanitarian organization.
Precautions and Cure
Ebola is not likely to kill a large number of people as airborne diseases do. It is caused only by direct contact with bodily fluids and each victim usually passes it to just one or two other persons. It is not highly contagious but can spread easily in crowded areas where people are exposed to each other like Bus, Train, Taxi, Railway Station, Markets etc. So, the best precaution is to avoid the crowded place, where the Ebola outbreaks have occurred and if it is a necessity to go in such places then one must use N95 face masks in order to prevent from getting infected with the disease.
At present, there are no approved vaccine or drug for this disease but thanks to painstaking efforts of Mapp Biopharmaceutical of San Diego, Mapp Biopharmaceutical developed a Serum called ZMapp which is supposed to be effective to cure Ebola. This miraculous drug is a cocktail of monoclonal antibodies, reports say that the two American Missionaries Nancy Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantly were infected with Ebola while working at a missionary clinic in Liberia. Both were treated with this experimental drug called ZMapp in Atlanta hospital and now both are said to be recovered an discharged from the hospital, but it is not known whether the drug helped or they improved on their own. ZMapp is said to have worked well in trials on primates but has yet to go through the mandatory clinical trials before it is certified for use as a drug against Ebola.
On the other hand, a Canadian firm Tekmira pharmaceuticals are developing a vaccine for Ebola and claim that the vaccine is 100 percent effective in protecting primates from of the five strains of Ebola Virus and it has finished the first phase of clinical trial.
