Tag Archives: ebola

Ebola is back–10 things you need to know

Ebola infection isolation
  1. Ebola causes a severe disease with fever, rashes, vomiting, diarrhea, and sometimes internal and/or external bleeding. It kills about half of  patients.
  2. Humans are first exposed to the virus from contact with bats or other infected animals. Once a person is infected, they can transmit the virus directly to other people via bodily secretions.  All bodily secretions are considered infectious, but the virus cannot spread through the air.
  3. The largest outbreak occurred in West Africa in 2014-2015, affecting almost 30,000 people and killing 40% of them.  From this outbreak, 4 cases occurred in the U.S.–2 traveled from Africa and 2 additional healthcare workers contracted the disease.
  4. The current outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo involves 58 people and 27 have died.
  5. Healthcare workers are frequently infected during outbreaks due to close contact with patients despite rigorous precautions and personal protective equipment.
  6. Burial ceremonies that involve contact with the deceased, which are common in Africa, have been implicated to spread disease.
  7. Ebola virus has been detected in semen of male survivors months after infection, but it is not known whether it can be transmitted via sexual intercourse this long after infection.
  8. Rehydration and supportive care improves survival, but there is no proven therapy to treat patients with Ebola. A few experimental therapies are being tested.
  9. There is no licensed vaccine available, though an experimental vaccine appeared to work during the West Africa outbreak and has been deployed to Democratic Republic of Congo.
  10. Ebola virus is a slow moving target that poses little risk for a worldwide pandemic with proper control and coordination from the WHO and partners.

For more information:
WHO
DynaMed Plus 
Cloudy Media Blog posts about Ebola

The “Not” Zone

THZIt has recently come to my attention that a lot of people out there are reading (or re-reading) Richard Preston’s The Hot Zone as a reference because of the current Ebola outbreak. I was shocked to hear this because I remember swiftly flipping the pages of this enthralling novel in high school. Yes, you read that correctly, novel. I thank my Twitter acquaintances (and science writer idols) Seth Mnookin (@sethmnookin), Maryn McKenna (@marynmck), Ed Yong (@edyong209), and Vincent Racaniello (@profvrr) for bringing a horrifying truth to my reality, The Hot Zone is classified, distributed, and sold as a nonfiction book!

Continue reading The “Not” Zone

OK, Ebola is here. So now is it time to panic?

With headlines like these:1280px-Ebola_virus_virion

There has been a resurgence of fright over the Ebola epidemic on social media.  So, is it now time to panic?

Continue reading OK, Ebola is here. So now is it time to panic?

The Ebola Frenzy

Earlier this month, Facebook and Twitter were loaded with posts like this one from Donald Trump:

Screen Shot 2014-08-28 at 10.13.10 AM

There was immediate and wide-spread panic among U.S. citizens, perpetuated by reports like this, and this.

At first, I too, was alarmed at the thought of bringing such a deadly disease to America.  Then I thought about the virus life cycle, how it infects humans, and how it spreads and I was, at least somewhat, relieved.  Continue reading The Ebola Frenzy