Outbreaks of deadly infectious diseases make for terrifying headlines. However distant the outbreak is, and however difficult it is to catch, human nature makes us assume the worst. The Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa is a prime example. It is a horrible disease and frequently fatal, yet it is only transmitted via bodily fluids from people with active infection. It cannot be caught from an infected person during the incubation phase, which can last anywhere between two and 21 days.
Once infection sets in, the patient experiences a rapid onset of fever, along with weakness, muscle pain, headache and a sore throat. Next come diarrhoea, vomiting, impaired liver and kidney functions and a rash, plus, in some cases, internal and external bleeding. Currently, intense supportive care, including rehydration, is the only real therapy, and the sooner this starts the more likely the patient is to survive. The death rate can be as high as 90%. Health workers are at particular risk because of their close contact with patients, and strict infection control is essential. Despite this, several health workers have been infected, most likely through failures in gowning procedures.
Health workers are at particular risk because of their close contact with patients, and strict infection control is essential
The virus was first identified after two outbreaks in 1976, one in Sudan and one in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), near the Ebola river, from which the virus takes its name. The current outbreak in West Africa was recognised in March 2014, first in Guinea, and spreading to Sierra Leone and Liberia. The epidemic was declared an international public health emergency by the World Health Organization in August, and several thousand people have died.
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