EBOLA
By: Zehra Jaffari
What is Ebola?
- Ebola is a deadly virus that originated in 1976 from the animals in Kitum cave of the Elgon rainforest in Africa (Preston 9). Ebola is a generally fatal disease due to the severe bleeding and organ failure that it causes.
How does Ebola Spread?
“Humans can be infected by other humans if they come in contact with body fluids from an infected person or contaminated objects from infected persons. Humans can also be exposed to the virus, for example, by butchering infected animals” (“Ebola Fast Fats”).
- Ebola is spread by people traveling, having doctors that have helped other patients that have Ebola, or anyone near you that has direct contact with the body fluids and blood of an Ebola patient.
Symptoms of Ebola
- First the patient infected with Ebola may feel backaches, headaches, vomiting, and a fever. The patient losses all expressions of their face and soon they look like a mask. The eyes turn blood shot red and they feel ditsy and very weak. Weakness of muscles is due to the tissue killed by the host that inside the body (Preston 14-20).
- Then symptoms start to worsen due to the non-stop bleeding that occurs through every opening of the body until the person explodes the remaining blood out of them for good.
Precautionary Measures
Avoid getting Ebola by:
- Washing your hands with anti-bacterial soap and water as much as you can.
- Avoid contact with the bodily fluids and blood of Ebola patients.
- Don't handle items that came in contact with the infected person's body fluids/blood.
- Do not come in contact with any primate or bats' blood, raw meat, or body fluids.
- Wear adequate equipment when dealing with infected patients (Preston 73).
- Keep Ebola patients isolated from others.
- Avoid direct contact with infected patients without using proper protective equipment.
Facts:
- There are two different types of Ebola. Ebola Zaire and Ebola Sudan, Zaire being twice as lethal as Sudan (Preston 38).
- Ebola is considered a "hot virus" because when the infected person regurgitates black vomit (speckled liquid of red and black mixed with red arterial blood), the blood is highly infect-able and lethally hot (Preston 18).