Michael Sheer Feb.13, 2008 Ebola Scientific Name: Ebolavirus filoviridae Causative Agent: Ebola Virus Classification: Envelope Glycoprotien Location: The exact natural reservoir of Ebola virus remains unknown. However, researchers believe that the virus is animal-borne and is normally maintained in an animal host that is native to the African continent. Discovered: 1976, first recognized in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa.

Symptoms Initial: Initial symptoms include high fever (at least 38.8°C; 101.8°F), severe headache, muscle, joint, or abdominal pain, severe weakness and exhaustion, sore throat, nausea, and dizziness. Serious: serious symptoms include diarrhea, dark or bloody feces, vomiting blood, red eyes due to distention and hemorrhage of sclerotic arterioles, petechia, maculopapular rash, and purpura. Affected Organs and Organ Systems: Attacks every organ and tissue in the human body, except muscle and bone. It creates blood hemorrhages under the skin, dissolves connective tissue, and destroys the brain.

Transmission Transmission: The Ebola virus is spread through close personal contact with a person who is infected with Ebola. Often, infection (in previous outbreaks) has occurred among hospital care workers or family members who were caring for an ill or dead person infected with Ebola virus. Blood and body fluids contain large amounts of virus, thus transmission of the virus has also occurred as a result of hypodermic needles being reused in the treatment of patients. The infection of human cases with Ebola virus has been documented through the handling of infected chimpanzees, gorillas, and forest antelopes both dead and alive.

Interesting Facts Severe cases require intensive supportive care, as patients are frequently dehydrated and in need of intravenous fluids or oral re-hydration with solutions containing electrolytes. No specific treatment or vaccine is yet available for Ebola hemorrhagic fever. Several vaccine candidates are being tested but it could be several years before any are available. Within the last 25 years, scientists in Russia, Iraq and several other countries have created genetically modified organisms of viruses such as Plague, Anthrax and Tularemia, that are resistant to most antibiotics. Ebola can also be modified for biological warfare. A small amount of Ebola released into the subways of New York, Boston or Washington, D.C., could result in hundreds of thousands of deaths within days. Because there is currently no vaccine for Ebola, the effects of a biological attack using the Ebola virus would be catastrophic. Ebola is a hemorrhagic filovirus shaped like a hockey stick, and belongs to one of four groups of the category, family Filoviridae. Incubation Period: 2-21 days