How Terrible is the Ebola Virus?

 

How Dangerous is the Ebola Virus?

Here, the new coronavirus epidemic has not yet subsided,

 

Over there, another virus with a higher fatality rate has come again.

 

On June 1, 2020, the Minister of Health of the Congo (DRC) announced:

 

A new round of Ebola has broken out in the northwest of the country.

 

This is the 11th outbreak of this virus in Congo (DRC) since 1976. It is confirmed by WHO. At present, 6 infected persons have been found and 4 of them have died. The extremely high fatality rate has once again aroused everyone's fear and concern about Ebola.

 You may want to know:

How terrible is the Ebola virus? Why is it so tenacious?

 

Why does Ebolavirus  always break out frequently in Africa?

The documentary we are going to talk about today may give you the answer

"Blood Disease: Ebola Virus"

In 1976,  in the Republic of Sudan, Africa, villagers in a small village suddenly fell ill.

 

The patient’s initial symptoms are no different from a cold.

 

But a few days later, his condition took a turn for the worse.

 

High fever above 38 degrees Celsius, vomiting and diarrhea, muscle pain, respiratory failure.

 

Many patients also have symptoms of internal and external bleeding.

 

When going to the toilet with blood in the stool, the nostrils and eyes will continue to ooze blood. 

 

After a few days of bleeding symptoms, the patient will die of excessive blood loss and organ failure.

 

More than half of the Sudanese patients soon died. 

 

Just a month later, Zaire near Sudan, which is today's Congo (DRC). 

An almost identical illness broke out. And, it quickly infected hundreds of people.

 

According to the earliest outbreak site-the Ebola River, the medical community name this virus Ebola virus. 

 

1. Ebola virus is a filovirus

 

This is a rare virus, which initially lodged on wild animals.

 

Because people in Sudan, Zaire and other places often eat game;

 

Children often play intimately with wild animals and get infected by accident.

 

When the Ebola virus is transferred to humans, it can spread through various human body fluids.

 

Such as blood, saliva, vomit, etc.

 

Even if only a little bit of Ebola virus enters the bloodstream, they will quickly create hundreds of millions of replicas, and then split the human body from the inside. That is an extremely painful way of death.

Moreover, this virus has strong vitality and will not die as soon as it leaves the host.

They can live for hours on dry surfaces and several days in body fluids.

 If the infected person vomits.

 

Contact with something contaminated by his vomit a few hours later, there is a serious risk of infection.

 

This time, the number of people infected with the Ebola virus was 318, of which 280 died.

2. In the years that followed, Ebola attacked humans time and time again

 

In 2003, there was another Ebola outbreak in Congo (DRC).

 

Of the 143 patients, 128 died.

 

The fatality rate is as high as 90%.

 

In 2014, the worst Ebola epidemic in history broke out in West Africa.

 

This time, people witnessed the terrible situation of the deadly virus getting out of control.

 

The outbreak began in a small village in Guinea, West Africa.

 

And this prairie fire was ignited when a witch doctor of a certain tribe declared that he could cure this disease.

At that time, the patient crossed the border from Guinea and traveled thousands of miles to treat the disease.

 

The witch doctor put the snake on the patient, chanted a spell, applied herbs, and "cured" it pretentiously.

 

However, not only did the patient not get better, but the witch doctor himself fell ill.

 

A few weeks later, the witch doctor passed away.

 

At her funeral, 80-100 people were exposed to the virus.

 

After that, the infected population continued to expand.

According to statistics, the highest clinical fatality rate of this epidemic is as high as 71%, and the mortality rate of patients visiting the clinic is as high as 57-59%.

 

With more and more patients, the already fragile medical system in West Africa began to collapse.

 

Among them was a little girl, about 7 years old, in a very serious condition.

 

In the end, the little girl died on the bed. 

 

However, after a long time, there was no medical service to treat her body.

 

The girl's body was covered with blood, and she was lying on the hospital bed like that, terrible...

 3. From 2013 to 2016, Ebola swept many countries in western Africa

Guinea, Nigeria, Liberia, Mali and other countries have not been spared.

 

This deadly virus spreads wildly across countries, killing people off guard.

 

Data show that during this period, a total of 28,637 people were infected and 11,315 people died.

 

Why does the Ebola virus always break out in Africa?

First, Africa has more primitive living areas and contacts with wild animals more frequently.

 

Second, poor sanitation and superstitions have given Ebola a chance to spread.

 

Third, the level of medical care is backward and there is a lack of effective prevention and treatment measures.

The lack of rapid diagnosis is the main factor in the spread of the virus.

We know, Influenza, malaria, cholera, dengue fever, Ebola these diseases all look the same at first.

 

It's all fever and headache, it's hard to tell.

In the early days, many cases in West Africa were misdiagnosed as cholera.

 

The bloody corpses were treated routinely, giving the virus a chance to spread wildly.

At the same time, according to the local people's concept, once you enter the hospital, your loved one may never come back.

 

Therefore, they transferred some patients out of the hospital and hid them in bushes and secret places.

 

This is one of the reasons for the rapid spread of Ebola. 

 

4. The Ebola virus attack on humans is usually divided into four stages

Kill the patient first, then kill the person caring for the patient;

 

Then kill the relatives and family members of the patients, and finally kill their direct treatment staff. 

At that time, before the outbreak, there were only a few 50 doctors in Liberia and about 130 in Sierra Leone.

 

With international assistance, more than 500 medical workers lost their lives before and after the outbreak.

 

An infectious disease expert named Lan was diagnosed with Ebola during the aid.

 

He was packed into a sealed plastic foam box and flew to the United States.

Subsequently, he was taken to a special isolation area for rescue treatment.

 

Soon, he developed multiple organ failures, lung failure.

 

For several weeks, he relied solely on ventilators and ventilators to maintain his breathing. Also, kidney failure.

 

After three to four weeks of dialysis, he was pulled back from the death line.

Even, brain failure.

 

People may be in a coma for several weeks without consciousness.

 

Finally, the early experimental treatment had an effect on him.

 

After 40 days of torment in hell, he miraculously recovered.

 

At first, he thought he had defeated Ebola.

 

In fact, he was wrong.

 

In the near future, his left eye began to become inflamed.

 

It is accompanied by symptoms such as pain, sensitivity to light, headache in the left brain, and blurred vision.

The results of the inspection were shocking.

 

In his eyes, there are a lot of active Ebola virus, and they are all multiplying.

 

Soon, his left eye gradually became blind.

The iris changed from blue to emerald green.

This result is worrying.

Just imagine, if someone performs eye surgery on a survivor of Ebola, and if the patient has the virus in his eyes.

 

Then, this may cause a new outbreak of the epidemic.

 

In other words:

The temporary end of a pandemic is definitely not the beginning of mankind's care. 

 

The unknown virus is asleep on the edge of the world.

 

They are looking for opportunities, waiting for them all to appear. 

The war between humans and viruses has never stopped.

 

The past tragic experiences and painful costs have also given us valuable experience and lessons.

 

At present, in the matter of virus prevention,

 

For humans, there is at least one thing we can do.

 

At least, we can not eat wild animals, can we?

Author's Bio

Name: Gwynneth May

Educational Qualification: MBBS, MD (Medicine) Gold Medalist

Profession: Doctor

Experience: 16 Years of Work Experience as a Medical Practitioner

About Me