The 14th Ebola outbreak in the Dr. Congo
On 23 April, after the Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo detected a confirmed case of Ebola in the country of Mbandaka, WHO immediately declared the 14th Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and by 26 April, a total of 233 close contacts had been found and two deaths had been identified.
Why is Ebola so vicious? So much so that it has been called one of the most terrifying viruses in the world, so that scientists have to use spacesuit-grade protective clothing to study Ebola. Let's take a look at the past and present lives of the Ebola virus for the benefit of the reader.
Discover Ebola
46 years ago, a man named Mabalo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire) came to the local medical station for help because of a continuous high fever, and after a simple examination, the medical staff determined that Mabalo had malaria with a very high local infection rate.
At that time, due to the lack of medical supplies and poor medical equipment, nurses injected drugs into several patients using needles that Mabalo had injected.
After 30 days, Mabalo's symptoms did not improve, and finally he died of ineffective medical treatment, and 18 relatives who attended his funeral also developed the same symptoms and died one after another. The medical aid station where Mabalo was treated was full of patients with the same symptoms as Mabalo.
Ebola virus fatality rate can reach 90%
Medical aid scientists investigated the simultaneous outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan and realized that humans may have discovered a new pathogenic virus that has never been heard of before, and named it Ebola.
In the end, 358 people infected with the virus were found in the first Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, of which 326 died, a mortality rate of 91%, while in Sudan, a total of 151 of the 284 infected people died, with a mortality rate of more than 50%.
Today, we already know the dangers of Ebola, one of the most terrifying viruses ever discovered by humans, and in the nearly half-century since the discovery of Ebola, there have been dozens of outbreaks, most of which have occurred in Africa.
Ebola symptoms
The Ebola virus never wanted to spare humanity, and it continues to invade the normal life of human beings. Nine years ago, a Ebola outbreak spread Ebola from central Africa to remote areas of west Africa at a staggering rate and scope.
Ebola is a powerful virus, infected people die within a week of symptoms, there is no cure, and the symptoms make patients worse off than dead, miserable. These include high fever, blood in the stool, vomiting, syncope, intracorporeal and extraterrestrial bleeding symptoms.
The terrible thing about Ebola is that scientists still don't know enough about it, and although humans have a rough understanding of how Ebola spreads, where it originates, and how to prevent it, humans are still helpless to control Ebola.
Ebola family: five members plus one close relative
Ebola virus is a pathogenic virus that disguises itself as a nematode and invades cells in the organism, and like smallpox viruses, Ebola viruses are divided into a variety of viruses, including five viruses and one close relative virus (Marburg virus).
The filovirus is very similar in shape, with a "curved hook" structure at the tip, which is very different from the genetic material obtained from human DNA, and the nevus obtains the genetic material from RNA.
Compared with human DNA, the RNA of the nemavirus is more "simple", with 3 billion pairs of bases in human DNA, while the number of molecules of the RAN of the nevus is less than 20,000.
Once the Ebola virus enters the human body, it will enter the incubation period, which will last for about 4 to 20 days until the infected person has initial symptoms: fever, headache, muscle pain, joint pain, coma, etc., at this time it is easy to be misdiagnosed as a cold or malaria. Symptoms then suddenly worsen, with intracorporeal and extracorporeal bleeding until death.
The Ebola virus hit Africa hard every few years
Of the five members of the Ebola virus family, the Zaire strain is the deadliest, with a fatality rate of about 90%, followed by the Sudanese strain, with a fatality rate of about 70%.
The other two members are the Ivory Coast virus strain, the BundiBuccio virus strain, which has only been found three times and has a relatively low fatality rate, and the last member is the Reston virus strain, which only circulates between non-human primates and has no effect on humans.
Scientists have found that every few years, the Ebola virus hits countries such as Africa, most of which are located in the central equator, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon and other countries.
The channels of Ebola's spread are a mystery
Some scientists believe that Ebola virus may be transmitted by bats or other migratory birds, and that warming may have affected the migration routes of bats and migratory birds, thus contributing to the spread of Ebola virus.
More than a decade ago, as people learned more about Ebola, scientists began to develop drugs and vaccines to treat Ebola. But studying this extremely dangerous virus remains challenging:
Pathogenic microorganisms can be divided into four biosecurity levels according to the degree of danger, of which the first level has less impact on humans, and the fourth level is the most terrifying, which can cause fatal diseases and may also be transmitted through various channels, while Ebola virus is a fourth-level virus.
Scientists need to wear spacesuit-grade protective clothing to study Ebola
In order to respond to and study the virus, scientists must wear spacesuit-level protective clothing, respiratory masks and undergo disinfection before they can enter and leave the security level FOUR biological laboratories, and even in the United States, where experimental conditions are more developed, there are only ten laboratories that can study Ebola virus.
Another difficulty in studying Ebola virus is the difficulty of virus collection, unless there is a round of Ebola outbreak, otherwise scientists do not know where to go to find and collect Ebola virus, where is Ebola virus usually hidden? It's still a mystery today.
Scientists have analyzed that there may be an animal that is the host of the Ebola virus, the virus can sleep in its body for a long time, and once the dormancy cycle is over, an Ebola outbreak will occur, and this animal may be a rare species that has not been discovered.
A long road to vaccine development
Before 2014, despite the extremely high mortality rate of Ebola virus, the number of people infected with Ebola virus was too small compared to other disease patients, and outbreaks often occurred in remote areas of Africa where the economy is backward and the vaccine is most difficult to vaccinate, so the development of Ebola vaccines is very slow.
But many countries are concerned that Ebola could be used in other biochemical attacks, so they have also stepped up the development of an Ebola vaccine.
At last
In November 2014, the U.S. Institutes of Health announced that the first Ebola vaccine had passed clinical trials, producing antibodies in volunteers, and two years later, WHO announced that the Ebola vaccine developed by the Canadian Public Health Agency would provide highly effective protection against Ebola virus.
It is believed that in the near future, humanity will eventually defeat the Ebola virus.
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