Ebola virus disease
is one of numerous Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers. It is
a severe, often fatal disease in humans and nonhuman primates. Symptoms start two days to three weeks
after contracting the virus.
Transmission
Direct contact (through broken skin or mucous
membranes) with
·
a sick person's blood or body fluids (urine,
saliva, feces, vomit, and semen)
·
objects (such as needles) that have been
contaminated with infected body fluids
·
infected animals
Health-care
workers have frequently been infected while treating patients with suspected or
confirmed EVD. This has occurred through close contact with patients when
infection control precautions are not strictly practiced.
Signs and symptoms
ü Fever (greater
than 38.6°C or 101.5°F)
ü Severe headache
ü Muscle pain
ü Weakness
ü Diarrhea
ü Vomiting
ü Abdominal
(stomach) pain
ü Lack of
appetite
The incubation period, that is, the time
interval from infection with the virus to onset of symptoms is 2 to 21 days.
Diagnosis
Other diseases that should be ruled out before
a diagnosis of EVD can be made include: malaria, typhoid fever, shigellosis,
cholera, leptospirosis, plague, rickettsiosis, relapsing fever, meningitis,
hepatitis and other viral haemorrhagic fevers.
Ebola virus infections can be diagnosed
definitively in a laboratory through several types of tests:
·
antibody-capture
enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)
·
antigen
detection tests
·
serum
neutralization test
·
reverse
transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay
·
electron
microscopy
·
virus isolation
by cell culture.
Samples from patients are an extreme biohazard
risk; testing should be conducted under maximum biological containment
conditions.
However, if a person has the early symptoms of
Ebola HF and there is reason to believe that Ebola HF should be considered, the
patient should be isolated and public health professionals notified. Samples
from the patient can then be collected and tested to confirm infection.
Treatment
Severely ill patients require
intensive supportive care. Patients are frequently dehydrated and require oral
rehydration with solutions containing electrolytes or intravenous fluids.
The FDA has allowed two drugs,
Zmapp and an RNA interference drug called TKM - Ebola, to
be used in people infected with Ebola under these programs during the 2014
outbreak
No specific treatment is available.
No vaccine is currently available
for humans.
Prevention
·
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.
Reducing the risk of wildlife-to-human
transmission from contact with infected fruit bats or monkeys/apes and the
consumption of their raw meat. Animals should be handled with gloves and other
appropriate protective clothing. Animal products (blood and meat) should be
thoroughly cooked before consumption.
·
Avoid hospitals
where Ebola patients are being treated.
·
After you
return, monitor your health for 21 days and seek medical care immediately if
you develop symptoms Ebola .
·
Health-care
workers caring for patients with suspected or confirmed Ebola virus should
apply, in addition to standard precautions, other infection control measures to
avoid any exposure to the patient’s blood and body fluids and direct
unprotected contact with the possibly contaminated environment. When in close
contact (within 1 metre) of patients with EBV, health-care workers should wear
face protection (a face shield or a medical mask and goggles), a clean,
non-sterile long-sleeved gown, and gloves (sterile gloves for some procedures).
