The Ebola Virus

For the last two decades humanity has had to face various tough and unexpected challenges; going from shocking terrorism events to threats of war, sudden economy crisis in  the west and epidemic diseases in the east. And just when we thought the world had enough problems to deal with a serious and threatening predicament started growing and expanding in the African continent.

An alarming Ebola outbreak that has been attacking the West African nations of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and several other countries has the world troubled with yet another obstacle against the wellness, progress and peace in planet earth.

But... What is this dangerous disease called Ebola anyways?

It's a highly infectious and contagious disease created by the virus of the same name that causes hemorrhagic fever in the human body and in most cases results in the death of the infected person.

According to various researches the first Ebola outbreak registered took place in Sudan in 1976 and another one  in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the second one allegedly occurred in the surroundings of the Ebola River, which is why the name of the virus and disease.

It's been proven that the original carrier of this virus is a mammal named Fruit Bat, the reason for this is because the geographic distribution of this animal is equivalent to the locations where the first outbreaks were registered.

The human beings must have had direct contact with blood, excrement or any other vital fluid from the infected animals given that this is the only way to get the disease, it's not transmitted through water nor air.

The mortality rate for infected people ranges between 60% to 90%. The recovery of each individual will always depend on the person's immune system's response. One important fact is that once you recuperate from Ebola your body develops a 10 year immunity to the disease.

The Ebola symptoms are divided into two stages. In the first stage the individual will feel muscular pain, headaches, sore throat and signs of body weakness. The second stage is more severe and aggressive and the individual has constant vomiting and diarrhea, abdominal pain, eye redness and even internal bleeding.

Currently there is no specific treatment or vaccine against Ebola. The best way to escape from getting the disease is by avoiding contact with the infected ones which is hard given that there is no distinctive way to tell if someone has the condition or not. The doctor's advice is to keep an eye in those symptoms listed before and visit the hospital proactively.