The Ebola Virus Essay, Research Paper

Life

is a biological internet in which viruses travel like

messages, moving at high speed from node to

node and from city to city. They are diverse and

wild spread in every plane on the surface of the

earth. Ironically, such invisible creatures have a

substantially enormous effects on human life and

health. In most cases, Viruses are harmful and

sometimes deadly. One of these deadly viruses is

the Ebola virus, a highly contagious, deadly and

mysterious microbe, known to be the most lethal

virus known to human kind that have caused many

devastation. The mere essence of their existence is

not to cause harm, they are living organisms who

want to reproduce and spread with the help of a

host. The Ebola virus, like most viruses, consists

of a shell of proteins surrounding genetic material,

like RNA and DNA. Once inside the cell, the

virus gets hold to the host cell and the virus may

enter the cell as it injects its genetic material into

the host cell. The virus then uses the host cell’s

machinery to replicate themselves and make new

copies of itself. Each new copy of the virus directs

the host cell to make it a protein shell. The new

viruses leave the host cell to other cells and repeat

the same process over and over again. Although

man is not Ebola’s natural host, the virus infects

people, and the adventure is suicidal as the

infected victims struggle with the symptoms The

infected victim staggers, disoriented and

exhausted, and collapses in a fever, which is

known as the Haemorrhagic fever. The fever is

characterized by weakness, muscle pain,

headache and sore throat. The victim’s eyes turn

bright red, and starts vomiting blood. The tongue

peels, and the heart muscle becomes soft.

Scientists believe that when the victim get in

contact with the virus, the virus first triggers a

combination of blood clots and hemorrhages. The

patient’s bloodstream throws clots, and the clots

lodge everywhere, especially in the spleen, liver,

and brain, then it settle in the victim throat.

Bleeding involves the nose, abdomen, and

pericardium. Capillary leakage appears to lead to

loss of interavascular volume leading the patient to

fall in a shock and acute respiratory disorder

leaving the patient desperately trying to gasp their

breath. The virus kills its victims so quickly, before

it even can infect others. The incubation period for

the Ebola virus ranges from 2 to 21 days,

depending upon the method of infection. The

Ebola virus can be diagnosed with laboratory

testing of blood specimens under maximum

containment conditions as the high risk of infection

to those handling infected blood remains a

nightmare to them. Infection of this deadly virus

occurs through the blood and is replicated in

organs like the Liver, lymphatic organs, and the

kidneys. However, it is spread through close

personal contact with the infected person who is

very ill with the disease. Normally, the wild spread

of Ebola virus takes place among hospital care

workers or family members who were aiding an

infected person. Ebola can spread by the reuse of

hypodermic needles, which occurs frequently in

underdeveloped countries like Zaire and Sudan,

but it is unlikely to become infected by close

contact with persons infected who show no

symptoms. Three outbreaks of Ebola hemorrhagic

fever among people had been reported. The first

two outbreaks were in 1976: one in Zaire and one

in western Sudan. These were large outbreaks,

resulting in more than 550 cases and 340 deaths.

The third outbreak, in 1979 in Sudan, was smaller,

with 34 cases and 22 fatalities. During each of

these outbreaks, a majority of cases occurred in

hospital settings under the challenging conditions of

the developing world. These conditions, including

lack of healthy medical supplies and the reuse of

the same needles and syringes, played a major

role in the spread of disease. Through isolation of

sick persons in a place requiring the wearing of

mask, gown and gloves careful sterilization of

needles and syringes and proper disposal of waste

and corpses. Causing death in 85% of all ill cases.

More than 5,000 people have been infected

worldwide. Victims go mad, endure unbelievable

pain, with blood leaking from every orifice. Yet no

one knows where the virus comes from, or when it

will strike next. Although humans have gotten

Ebola from infected monkeys, these primates are

considered unlikely long-term hosts because the

virus kills them. Until now, scientists do not know

where does the virus lives in nature, or who is the

original host. But they hypothetically believe that it

came from the forest. The gruesome mystery of

who’s the original host of the Ebola virus remains

unanswered. While the monkey remain the main

suspect, efforts have been done to minimize the

spreading of the disease. "One of deadliest

diseases known has emerged from the forests of

Africa" said Purvis, an author of a published article

in the Time magazine. Purvis discussed the

scientists suspensions about the original host of this

lethal virus in his article. He said that the scientists

had suspected that the disease which killed 245 in

the Zairian town of Kikwit, was transmitted to

humans from Chimpanzees or eating dead

monkeys. Colobus monkeys, for example, can

transmit the virus to chimpanzees, which hunt

them, and people get the virus after eating a dead

chimp, and that where the theory that chimp carry

the virus came from Elizabeth Neus, an Idaho

statesman author, agrees with Purvis that

chimpanzees might be the real host for the virus.

Purvis and Neus both agree that the theory looks

pretty solid since the last out Break of the Ebola

virus. However, this theory contradicts what Steve

Sternberg, who scientifically proved, that bats only

the bats proved capable of carrying Ebola. bats

could be the animal host that scientist have

searched for ever since Ebola first emerged in

Zaire. Researchers have been greatly slowed by

extreme of pathogens of the virus. Weather Ebola

can be cured or not? Will be forever a mystery, till

scientists can slow the rapid growth of those

viruses. Slow enough to give man kind a fighting

chance to their existence, and slow than messages

that is transmitted by the internet