The Ebola Virus - Research Paper Example

The Ebola virus, Sudan and Zaire subtype in particular, were first discovered in an equatorial province west of Sudan and the nearby region of Democratic Republic of Congo formerly Zaire in 1976. The discovery was made after serious epidemics were reported in the village of Yambuku located in the northern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nzara village in the Southern Sudan. The Reston virus was discovered in the western pacific in 1989 during an outbreak of simian hemorrhagic fever virus (SHFV), while the Cote d’Ivoire species of virus were discovered in 1994 in a Tai forest in the country of Cote d’Ivoire (Peter, 2009).

Some of the early symptoms characterized by the Ebola virus include: headache, sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain and sore throat. Vomiting, diarrhea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function often follows at an advanced stage of the disease, and in some cases both external and internal bleeding have been reported. Research findings have shown low counts of white blood cells and platelets and platelets, as well as elevated liver enzymes (Ryabchikova, 2004). The Ebola Virus is said to be transmitted by direct contact with body fluids of infected individuals or blood, secretions.

Transmission of Ebola has been linked to burial ceremonies where mourners have had direct contact with the body of the deceased person who suffered from this virus. The cause of infections of Ebola virus in humans has resulted from the human handling of infected non-human primates such as the chimpanzees, gorillas and consumption of forest antelopes either dead or alive or both. These cases have been reported and documented in the Cote d’Ivoire and the Democratic republic of Congo. The transmission of the Reston species, however, is because of handling the cynomolgus monkey (Bausch, 2011).

Health care workers have not been left behind in the infection chain, and they have largely been infected in the line of duty. This is through treating the Ebola patients at a close contact, without following standard infection control precautions, and inadequate nursing procedures has always been the case in most African countries. The incubation period for the disease is put at a minimum of two days and maximum of 21 days (Ryabchikova, 2004). The natural reservoir of the Ebola Virus is still unknown to humans, despite the extensive studies directed to its course.

All that is known is that it seems to reside in the rainy forests of the African continent and the western pacific, and although non-human primates have been the source of infections for human, they are believed to have been directly infected by the natural reservoir or some transmission chain in the natural reservoir. Some of the virulent factors that have led to Ebola infections in humans are linked to direct contact with chimpanzees, monkeys, guinea pigs, gorillas and porcupines in the rainy forests of Africa.

However, there have been speculations that bats have played a role in maintaining the Ebola virus in the tropical forest since they caught the infection and did not die from it. This case forms one of the many hypotheses developed to explain the origin of the Ebola virus (Peter, 2009). Ebola virus test are extremely biohazard risk and are only conducted under maximum biological containment conditions. Diagnosis of the Ebola can be done under specialized laboratories where