Essay on Ebola Virus

Ebola Virus Term Papers

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The Ebola Virus

A virus is an ultramicroscopic infectious organism that, having no independent

metabolic activity, can replicate only within a cell of another host organism. A virus

consists of a core of nucleic acid, either RNA or DNA, surrounded by a coating of

antigenic protein and sometimes a lipid layer surrounds it as well. The virus provides the

genetic code for replication, and the host cell provides the necessary energy and raw

materials. There are more than 200 viruses that are know to cause disease in humans. The

Ebola virus, which dates back to 1976, has four strains each from a different geographic

area, but all give their victims the same painful, often lethal symptoms.

The Ebola virus is a member of a family of RNA viruses known as 'Filoviriade'

and falling under one genus, 'Filovirus'. "The Ebola virus and Marburg virus are the two

known members of the Filovirus family" (Journal of the American Medical Association

273: 1748). Marburg is a relative of the Ebola virus. The four strains of Ebola are Ebola

Zaire, Ebola Sudan, Ebola Reston, and Ebola Tai. Each is named after the geographical

location in which it was discovered. These filoviruses cause hemorrhagic fever, which is

actually what kill victims of the Ebola virus. Hemorrhagic fever as defined in Mosby's

Medical, Nursing, and Allied Health Dictionary as, a group of viral aerosol infections,

characterized by fever, chills, headache, malaise, and respiratory or GI symptoms,

followed by capillary hemorrhages, and, in severe infection, oliguria, kidney failure,

hypotension, and, possibly, death. The incubation period for Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever

ranges from 2-21 days (JAMA 273: 1748). The blood fails to clot and patients may bleed

from injections sites and into the gastrointestinal tract, skin and internal organs (Ebola

Info. from the CDC 2). The Ebola virus has a tropism for liver cells and macrophages,

macrophages are cells that engulf bacteria and help the body defend against disease.

Massive destruction of the liver is a hallmark feature of Ebola virus infection. This virus

does in ten days what it takes AIDS ten years to do. It also requires biosaftey level four

containment, the highest and most dangerous level. HIV the virus that causes AIDS

requires only a biosaftey level of two. In reported outbreaks, 50%-90% of cases have

been fatal (JAMA 273: 1748).

Ebola can be spread in a number of ways, and replication of the virus occurs at an

alarming rate. Ebola replication in infected cells takes about eight hours. Hundreds to

thousands of new virus particles are then released during periods of a few hours to a few

days, before the cells die. The several cycles of replication occur in a primate before the

onset of the fever and other clinical manifestations (Ornstein, Matthews and Johnson 7).

In most outbreaks, transmission from patient to patient within hospitals has been

associated within the reuse of unsterile needles and syringes. High rates of transmission

in outbreaks have occurred from patients to heath-care workers and to family members

who provide nursing care without appropriate precautions to prevent exposure to blood,

other body fluids, vomitus, urine and stool. Risk for transmitting the infection appears to

be highest during the later stages of illness, which are often characterized by vomiting,

diarrhea, shock, and frequently hemorrhaging (JAMA 274: 374). Even a person who has

recovered from the symptoms of the illness may have the virus present in the genital

secretions for a brief period after. This makes it possible for the virus to be spread by

sexual contact. Complete recovery is reached only when no particles of the virus are left

in the body fluids, this however is rarely attained. The disease, for humans, is not

airborne, capable to be passed on through air travel, but for nonhuman primates it has

been a possibility in a few cases.

Ebola Zaire was identified in 1976 in Northern Zaire and was the first

documented appearance of the virus. This strain of the virus effects humans and

nonhuman primates. Close contact and dirty needles spread the Ebola virus. The center

of the epidemic in Zaire involved a missionary hospital where they reused needles and

syringes without sterilization. Most of the staff of the hospital got sick and died. This

outbreak infected 318 with a death rate of 93% (Le Guenno et al. 1271). Another fatal

case was reported one year later in Zaire but nothing major ever became of it. The most

recent case recorded was the infamous breakout in Kikwit, Zaire. This breakout had the

world in an uproar about the possibility of this virus spreading out globally. This

outbreak appeared to have started with a patient who had surgery in Kikwit on April 10,

1995. Members of the surgical team then developed symptoms similar to those of a viral

hemorrhagic fever disease (Ebola Info. from the CDC 2). From there, the disease spread

to more than 300 others. The most frequent symptoms at...

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