Laboratory Diagnosis of Ebola Disease - Essay Example

Ebola assumes an incubation period of two 2 to 25 days before the onset of the symptoms. The initial symptoms consist of muscle pain, fever fatigue, sore throat, and headache. These are closely followed by diarrhea, vomiting, impaired colon, and kidney symptoms, rashes, and both external and internal bleeding. The medical laboratory diagnosis illustrates a decrease in platelets and low white blood cell count together with an enzyme elevation (Hewlett & Hewlett, 2008).

            In clinical check-ups, it is challenging to differentiate Ebola Viral Disease from other common infectious diseases like typhoid, meningitis, malaria, and fever. There are several ways to reaffirm whether the symptoms are Ebola viral infections. Antigen capture detection tests, electron microscopy, and antibody capture immunosorbent assay of enzyme linkage are some of the prime investigations for the Ebola virus (Stimola, 2011). Other methods include cell culture viral isolation, reverse polymerase chain reaction assay, and serum neutralization test. A maximum biological containment option is needed to conduct biologically non-inactivated laboratory testing to avoid further infection.

A range of treatments like immune therapies, blood product treatments, and drug therapies are in the current evaluation to reduce Ebola risks. There is also an absence of licensed vaccines for Ebola prevention, but the discovered vaccines are still safe for human testing (Stimola, 2011). Read More