Ebola is a viral disease that was first identified and isolated in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan in Africa in the year 1976. The disease was named after a popular river in Congo due to the speculations that it originated from the river. In its first diagnosis, the disease infected more than 283 people and had a mortality rate of 53 percent of the infected population due to lack of curative treatment that could be administered to the sick patients. Subsequent infections proved much more fatal as it reoccurred with a mortality rate of 88 percent (Lalande, 2014).
Ebola is caused and determined by a virus called Ebola Virus Disease. Since its first discovery and diagnosis, it has had a mortality rate of up to 90 percent and is greatly enhanced by the tropical environments since they offer conducive environments for the development of the disease in the body. The disease is transmitted through a human to human contact though the natural host of the disease has been established to be fruit bats (Lalande, 2014).
After infection, the virus expresses itself in the body in form of a sudden onset of fever, chronic weakness, acute muscle weaknesses and pain, sore throat and headaches. The later symptoms are expressed in form of vomiting, rashes, kidney and liver failure and chronic internal bleeding. These symptoms can be quantified effectively in the body through both eliminatory mechanisms where it is sidelined with other diseases such as fever, malaria, cholera and plague among others which have much similar symptoms. The laboratory diagnostic and confirmatory test involves testing the body fluids such as serum for the presence of the Ebola virus which is then identified by electron microscopy (Lalande, 2014).
The disease has no licensed vaccine in the market yet. It can only be controlled through the constant rehydration and quarantine of the patients to prevent spread to others.
References
Lalande, G. (2014, August 12). Ebola - let's be rational....