Avoiding Ebola Virus

Ebola is one of the most feared infections in the world but do travelers or people at home need to worry about it?

Outbreaks have occurred in Zaire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Sudan, and Ivory Coast, affecting humans, monkeys, and chimpanzees.

The virus is spread by direct contact with blood, secretions, or organs of those infected so we presume infected animals give it to people. No one knows exactly how Ebola is maintained as a reservoir in the wild.

Hospital workers in those countries are at risk if they contact someone sick, but travelers have a relatively low risk.
Symptoms occur 2-21 days after contamination with high fever, sore throat, headache and muscle aches, stomach pains, diarrhea and fatigue.

An itchy pink rash spreads first on the face then the rest of the body.

Other symptoms include a dry cough, red and irritable eyes and vomiting blood and bloody diarrhea.

Severe cases of bleeding may occur. It is survivable and the individual factors that allow some to survive are still poorly understood.

Blood test can confirm Ebola if suspected.

There is no specific treatment although IV anti-virals may help.

It should be noted that Ebola while flashy is very rare and many more people die of measles and other diseases each day but still it captures the imagination.

Some people look upon lethal viruses as “unsuccessful” since they rapidly kill a host before infecting others putting themselves out of business. The great fear of scientists is if a strain of Ebola or similarly lethal disease was able to persist longer and be more easily transmitted.

Recently researchers at the virology lab have developed an Ebola vaccine.

Last summer I was attending a Bioterrorism workshop in Minneapolis by a US Colonel and tropical disease expert who flatly said there was no vaccine available. I tried to tell him about the Canadian vaccine but he refused to believe me.

Recently a German lab worker was poked with a needle containing Ebola and treated using the Winnipeg based vaccine. It is hard to know if she was actually infected first and if the vaccine was helpful but she is being closely watched as the first person to be in a situation

Other hemmorhagic viruses that are similr in that the cause severe bleeding include Marburg virus, Lassa fever virus, the New World arenaviruses (Guanarito, Machupo, Junin, and Sabia), and Rift Valley fever and Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever viruses

In the extremely rare event of being near a possible Viral Hemorrhagic disease the best way to be protected is maintain barriers to all infected bodily fluids and try to isolate infected people so a correct diagnosis can be made.

People have attempted to identify high risk areas in countries where eruptions have occurred but this is very difficult to do but it is always prudent not to visit any areas where a new outbreak is occurring.

Because of its severity the media will inform people quickly.