Ebola, the killer virus

Abstract

Ebola virus disease (EVD) has mostly affected economically deprived countries as limited resources adversely affect a country’s infrastructure and administration. Probing into the factors that led to the widespread outbreak, setting forth plans to counter EVD cases in developing countries, and devising definitive measures to limit the spread of the disease are essential steps that must be immediately taken. In this review we summarize the pathogenesis of EVD and the factors that led to its spread. We also highlight interventions employed by certain countries that have successfully limited the epidemic, and add a few preventive measures after studying the current data. According to the available data, barriers to prevent and control the disease in affected countries include irresolute and disorganized health systems, substandard sanitary conditions, poor personal hygiene practices, and false beliefs and stigma related to EVD. The public health sector along with the respective chief authorities in developing countries must devise strategies, keeping the available resources in mind, to deal with the outbreak before it occurs. As a first step, communities should be educated on EVD’s symptoms, history, mode of transmission, and methods of protection, including the importance of personal hygiene practices, via seminars, newspapers, and other social media. A popular opinion leader (POL) giving this information would further help to remove the misconception about the nature of the disease and indirectly improve the quality of life of affected patients and their families.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40249-015-0048-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Introducing EbolaCheck: potential for point-of-need infectious disease diagnosis

“…The GP also features immunomodulation, immune evasion and endothelial barrier disruption roles [1]. The monocytic tropism of Ebolavirus mediates proinflammatory responses during replication that amplify infectivity and pathology, collectively resulting in the internal hemorrhage and organ failure characteristic of the later stages of disease [2,3]. Diagnosis is extremely difficult [2,4] as symptoms mimic other HFDs, flu or gastrointestinal infections, which do not preclude Ebolavirus coinfection [4,5].…”

“…Diagnosis is extremely difficult [2,4] as symptoms mimic other HFDs, flu or gastrointestinal infections, which do not preclude Ebolavirus coinfection [4,5]. Transmission risk increases in line with symptom severity, mirroring viremia [6]; presymptomatic patients are not considered contagious and may remain asymptomatic for up to 21 days [3]. Confirmation of Ebolavirus as the causal disease agent requires clinical molecular diagnostic laboratory solutions.…”

Stochastic dynamics of an epidemic with recurrent spillovers from an endemic reservoir

“…However, zoonotic pathogens can spill over multiple incidental hosts and they can infect each other. In the case of the Ebola virus, which infects multiple incidental hosts such as apes, gorillas and monkeys ( Ghazanfar et al, 2015 ), the principal mode of contamination of the human population is the transmission from non-human primate populations. Moreover, the contact patterns between animals and humans is one of the most important risk factors in the emergence of avian influenza outbreaks ( Meyer et al, 2017 ).…”

Infectious Diseases of Poverty, the first five years

“…Additionally, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases like the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), influenza, Ebola virus disease (EVD), dengue, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and Zika virus disease threaten human health and global security [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”