The Ebola Virus - Signs & Symptoms FYI
Salam all!
Ohmy ohmy its Midweek August!! tak sangka we're moving towards 3rd qtr of 2014.. ohhhh myyy time fliess soooo fast.. tak terkejar kejar ni..
Anyways im back in the office feeling gloomy all over..
i blame it on the weather ..its hazey and dark outside.. plus all morning been seeing cloudy skies.. i figure hujan gona turun very soon..
Since its super gloooooomy.. let's shift to the newly found outbreak in the world..
. the Ebola Virus!!!
So do you know much about this penyakit? how it came about and how it got here?
Aha.. let me fill u in...
Refer to WHO (World Health Organization):
Ebola is
- Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans.
- EVD outbreaks have a case fatality rate of up to 90%.
- EVD outbreaks occur primarily in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests.
- The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission.
- Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are considered to be the natural host of the Ebola virus.
- Severely ill patients require intensive supportive care. No licensed specific treatment or vaccine is available for use in people or animals.
How is it transmitted?.. and how did it become a worldwide disease??
Transmission
Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals. In Africa, infection has been documented through the handling of infected chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines found ill or dead or in the rainforest.
Ebola then spreads in the community through human-to-human transmission, with infection resulting from direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and indirect contact with environments contaminated with such fluids. Burial ceremonies in which mourners have direct contact with the body of the deceased person can also play a role in the transmission of Ebola. Men who have recovered from the disease can still transmit the virus through their semen for up to 7 weeks after recovery from illness.
Health-care workers have frequently been infected while treating patients with suspected or confirmed EVD. This has occurred through close contact with patients when infection control precautions are not strictly practiced.
Among workers in contact with monkeys or pigs infected with Reston ebolavirus, several infections have been documented in people who were clinically asymptomatic. Thus, RESTV appears less capable of causing disease in humans than other Ebola species.
However, the only available evidence available comes from healthy adult males. It would be premature to extrapolate the health effects of the virus to all population groups, such as immuno-compromised persons, persons with underlying medical conditions, pregnant women and children. More studies of RESTV are needed before definitive conclusions can be drawn about the pathogenicity and virulence of this virus in humans.
Signs and symptoms
EVD is a severe acute viral illness often characterized by the sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding. Laboratory findings include low white blood cell and platelet counts and elevated liver enzymes.
People are infectious as long as their blood and secretions contain the virus. Ebola virus was isolated from semen 61 days after onset of illness in a man who was infected in a laboratory.
The incubation period, that is, the time interval from infection with the virus to onset of symptoms, is 2 to 21 days.
Diagnosis
Other 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.
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.
Samples from patients are an extreme biohazard risk; testing should be conducted under maximum biological containment conditions.
Vaccine and treatment
No licensed vaccine for EVD is available. Several vaccines are being tested, but none are available for clinical use.
Severely ill patients require intensive supportive care. Patients are frequently dehydrated and require oral rehydration with solutions containing electrolytes or intravenous fluids.
No specific treatment is available. New drug therapies are being evaluated.
The 2014 outbreak
Main article: 2014 West Africa Ebola virus outbreak
Researchers trace the 2014 Ebola virus outbreak to a two-year old child who died on 6 December 2013, in the southeastern portion of Guinea, a western African nation. It was first reported in late March 2014, it is the largest ever documented, and the first recorded in the region.
As of 10 April 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported 157 suspected and confirmed cases in Guinea, 22 suspected cases in Liberia, 8 suspected cases in Sierra Leone, and 1 suspected case in Mali. By 31 July 2014, they reported that the death toll had reached 826 people from 1440 cases.
On 8 August, the WHO declared the epidemic to be an international public health emergency. Urging the world to offer aid to the affected regions, the Director-General said, "Countries affected to date simply do not have the capacity to manage an outbreak of this size and complexity on their own. I urge the international community to provide this support on the most urgent basis possible.
Emory University Hospital was the first US hospital to care for people exposed to Ebola. In July 2014, two American medical providers, Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, were exposed while treating infected patients in Liberia. In August, arrangements were made for them to be transported to Emory via speciality aircraft. Emory Hospital has a specially built isolation unit set up in collaboration with the CDC to treat people exposed to certain serious infectious diseases
Symptoms of Ebola HF typically include:
- Fever
- Headache
- Joint and muscle aches
- Weakness
- Diarrhea
- Vomiting
- Stomach pain
- Lack of appetite
Some patients may experience:
- A Rash
- Red Eyes
- Hiccups
- Cough
- Sore throat
- Chest pain
- Difficulty breathing
- Difficulty swallowing
- Bleeding inside and outside of the body
Symptoms may appear anywhere from 2 to 21 days after exposure to ebolavirus though 8-10 days is most common.
Some who become sick with Ebola HF are able to recover, while others do not. The reasons behind this are not yet fully understood. However, it is known that patients who die usually have not developed a significant immune response to the virus at the time of death.
So people.. specially those travellers out there.. pls be careful and dont touch strangers or go near those who seen unwell. You may never know where they have been or what they have touched.
In fact im declaring Quarantine from public places to my son (to prevent and limit the exposure on this outbreak / other viral infections)
Teach our children and those who often deal with kids to be hygiene (wash hands, dettol and sanitize) often. Keep them dried up all the time.
We all must do our part. With all these viral infections going on, its best to keep them safe .. better prevention than sorry...
Comments
Post a Comment