Ebola is a filovirus that causes hemorrhagic fever. It is single stranded RNA virus and has a helical capsid. Filoviruses are string-shaped, often with a little hook or loop at one end.
There are four varieties of Ebola: Ebola Zaire, Ebola Sudan, Ebola Tai, and Ebola Reston. Geographically speaking, Ebola is known to occur in Central Africa, initially in Zaire and Sudan. The Ebola Tai strain was discovered recently in the Ivory Coast, West Africa. Epidemiologically speaking, Ebola Zaire, Sudan, and Tai cause illness in humans as well as sub-human primates; Ebola Reston does not cause illness in humans. They are all similar in structure, but differ in gene sequence.
With Ebola, people develop fever, chills, headaches, muscle aches, and loss of appetite. As the disease progresses, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, sore throat, and chest pain can occur. The blood fails to clot and patients may bleed from injection sites as well as into the gastrointestinal tract, skin, and internal organs. Ebola Zaire is fatal in 90% of the cases, Ebola Sudan is fatal in about 60%, not enough information is known about Ebola Tai, and Ebola Reston is not fatal to humans.
Ebola can be contracted by close personal contact with someone who is ill with Ebola. Usually contraction is through contact with blood and body fluid that contains the virus. There is no vaccine for the Ebola virus, but it can be treated with careful management of fluid and electrolyte balance. The disease doesn't show a latent period, so after recovery the survivor would have to be re-infected to get the disease again.
*Disclaimer - This report was written by a student participaring in a microbiology course at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. The accuracy of the contents of this report is not guaranteed and it is recommended that you seek additional sources of information to verify the contents.
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