While the coronavirus occupies the mindspace of the world’s health machinery, the latest wave of another deadly virus — Ebola — that has so far killed at least 11,000 people over 45 years — has been declared over.
The announcement by the World Health Organization on June 19 came almost a month after the Republic of Congo reported an end to the Ebola outbreak on May 3.
The outbreak in Guinea, which lasted for four months (February to June) claimed the lives of 12 persons.
“Based on the lessons learned from the 2014-16 outbreak and through rapid, coordinated response efforts … Guinea managed to control the outbreak and prevent its spread beyond its borders,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
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How and where did Ebola disease originate?
Ebola spreads through EBOV (ebola virus) which is a virus belonging to the Filoviridae family of viruses. It is mainly found in animals.
A person infected with Ebola manifests a variety of symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting, loss of appetite, fever, severe dehydration, severe headache and pain in the joints.
Ebola was reported for the first time in the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) in 1976. Since then, the menace has troubled African nations at regular intervals, especially in the west African countries like Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.
The virus is named after the Ebola river — as a village situated on its bank witnessed the first instance of the viral outbreak in 1976.
Experts have time and again stated that the accurate origin of the Ebola virus is hard to identify as is the case of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the ongoing COVID19 pandemic.
But it is widely accepted that the disease has been passed on to humans by animals. Originally, the Ebola virus is found in animal reservoirs and humans don’t frequently report its infection but once passed on to humans, the rate of infection can be very high with a fatality rate that has been reported to be around 60 per cent in African countries like Guinea.
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“Because Ebola virus can trigger a massive inflammatory response, and its viral proteins mediate immune evasion processes, the infection can result in great lethality,” Michael Gale Jr, a professor of immunology at the University of Washington School of Medicine and director of the UW Center for Innate Immunity and Immune Disease, wrote in a medical news journal Healio on April 19, 2017.
How does the infection spread amongst humans?
In human beings, the transmission of the Ebola virus occurs via bodily fluids. An infected person can potentially infect others through sexual contact, blood transfusion, etc.
The rate of infection and fatality has been high in the African countries due to poor hygienic conditions in the hospitals.
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A dangerous practice of reusing syringes has been reported to have aggravated the Ebola outbreak in west African countries.
Does Ebola virus have strains like COVID19?
Yes, as it is common in case of other viral infections, the outbreaks have often been reported to have been caused by different strains of Ebola virus.
A list by the WHO on the outbreaks by Ebola shows that some of the common strains of Ebola virus in the last 40 years are Zaire, Sudan, and Bundibugyo (a Ugandan district). The Ebola outbreak of 2014-16 has been the deadliest so far and a total of at least 11,000 lives have been lost.
How has the Ebola outbreak ended?
In its note on the outbreak on February 23, this year, the WHO stated that community engagement is key to successfully controlling outbreaks. Awareness programmes and encouraging hygienic practices reduced the infections to a great extent.
“Good outbreak control relies on applying a package of interventions, namely case management, infection prevention and control practices, surveillance and contact tracing, a good laboratory service, safe and dignified burials and social mobilisation,” WHO stated.
Also, vaccines have been developed against Ebola as well. Presently, vaccines like Ervebo have been tested and used in controlling the outbreak of the Ebola virus outbreaks.
A strategy called ring vaccination is generally used to protect individuals from getting infected.
Ring vaccination is a strategy to vaccinate individuals at highest risk of infection due to their connection to a patient confirmed with the virus.
