What You Need to Know About The Ebola Virus Disease (EVD)!

Patrick Sawyer, Ebola Victim has been reported dead. Reuters reported that the Liberian man in his 40's was being tested for Ebola virus in Lagos, by the Lagos State Health Ministry. Reports claim that the victim was tested at First Consultant Hospital, Obalende. However, the hospital denied ever having a case of Ebola virus reported.


Nevertheless, the fact still remains that the virus is spreading fast and can be transmitted by mere physical contact.

 It can be compared with the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) disease that plagued Nigeria some years ago. According to World Health Organization, the outbreak began in southern China between 2002 and 2003 and caused 775 deaths in multiple countries with the majority of cases in Hong Kong (9.6% fatality rate). Within weeks, SARS spread from Hong Kong to infect individuals in 37 countries in early 2003.

WHO reported that the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak evolved from Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. Between 18 – 20 July 2014, 45 new cases and 28 deaths were reported from all three countries. These include suspect, probable, and laboratory-confirmed cases. As of 20 July 2014, the cumulative number of cases attributed to EVD in the three countries stands at 1,093, including 660 deaths. Here are some facts you need to know about the virus:  

1. Ebola Virus Disease is rare. 

2. Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are considered to be the natural host of the Ebola virus.  

3. Infection is by contact with blood or body fluids of an infected person or an animal infected or by contact with contaminated objects.

4. The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission. 

5. The most common symptoms experienced by persons infected with the virus are the sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat and in some cases bleeding. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and at advanced stage, both internal and external bleeding. Laboratory findings include low white blood cells and platelet counts and elevated liver enzymes. 

6. Cases of Ebola have recently been confirmed in XXX and YYY.

7. Persons who come into direct contact with body fluids of an infected person or animal are at risk.

8. There is no licensed vaccine.

9. Practice careful hygiene. Wash your hands regularly and use hand sanitizers.

10. Avoid all contact with blood and body fluids of infected people or animals.

11. Do not handle items that may have come in contact with an infected person’s blood or body fluids.

12. If you stayed in the areas where Ebola cases have been recently reported, seek medical attention if you feel sick ( fever, headache, achiness, sore throat, diarrhoea, vomiting, stomach pain, rash, or red eyes).

13. The incubation period of Ebola virus disease (EVD) varies from 2 to 21 days. Person-to-person transmission by means of direct contact with infected persons or their body fluids/secretions is considered the principal mode of transmission. In a household study, secondary transmission took place only if direct physical contact occurred. No transmission was reported without this direct contact. Airborne transmission has not been documented during previous EVD outbreaks.

14. There is no risk of transmission during the incubation period and only low risk of transmission in the early phase of symptomatic patients. The risk of infection during transport of persons can be further reduced through use of infection control precautions.

15. In the current outbreak, infected travelers have crossed land borders with neighbouring countries and there is a possibility that other cases might occur in neighbouring countries.(It is already in Nigeria)

16. People are infectious as long as their blood and secretions contain the virus. Men who have recovered from the disease can still transmit the virus through their semen for up to seven weeks after recovery from illness. 

17. So far, there have been only two survivors of EVD who are now helping others with the virus. Read their story here

18.  Ebola first appeared in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks, in Nzara, Sudan, and in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Diagnosis 
Ebola virus infections can be diagnosed definitively in a laboratory through several types of tests:

• antibody-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)
• antigen detection tests
• serum neutralization test
• reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay
• electron microscopy
• virus isolation by cell culture.

Diseases that should be ruled out before a diagnosis of EVD can be made include: malaria, typhoid fever, shigellosis, cholera, leptospirosis, plague, rickettsiosis, relapsing fever, meningitis, hepatitis and other viral haemorrhagic fevers. 

So guyz, please let us be very cautious. No one knows who is a carrier of the disease. As they say, e no dey show for face. May God protect and help us all. For more information on EVD, click here