“Patient Zero in the Ebola outbreak, researchers suspect, was a 2-year-old boy who died on Dec. 6, just a few days after falling ill in a village in Guéckédou, in southeastern Guinea…A week later, it killed the boy’s mother, then his 3-year-old sister, then his grandmother…Two mourners at the grandmother’s funeral took the virus home to their village. A health worker carried it to still another, where he died, as did his doctor. They both infected relatives from other towns.”
Anyone care to explain how the two year old could have gotten it? Found a dead animal?
How about an infected fruit bat spots a tasty looking piece of fruit hanging on a tree and takes a couple of bites out of it. The virus in the bat’s saliva is transmitted to the fruit, which still looks good to a passing monkey or 2 year old. Whichever one eats it gets ebola, and if it’s the monkey, if he happens to bite a human who wants to play with the cute monkey, the human now has it.
Antibodies to the Ebola virus have been found in various animals. Testing in an earlier outbreak showed infectious levels of virus in an animal carcass that had been laying out for several days.
Consumption of bush meat may play a role in spreading Ebola from the animal reservoir to humans.
The last bit of the New York Times article linked above is sobering. Dr. Sheik Umar Khan, head of the Ebola eradication effort in Sierra Leone, sent a spreadsheet to colleagues with a list of requested medical supplies including 3,000 adult and 2,000 child body bags. Dr Khan subsequently fell ill with Ebola and died.
Scary shit - researchers seemed to believe the speed of the virus (in general) as well as methods they’ve used to educate would limit future outbreaks (before this).
Reading that article suggests that improvements in infrastructure have made spreading the virus easier. As the virus mutates it’s probably only a matter of time before it adjusts the rate of infection, becomes airborne, or finds new hosts. I might be off on this, but I believe that area of Africa hasn’t seen an Ebola outbreak since 1995 - and it’s closer related to those in more central Africa than to where it is now.
So a better question might be how did the natural host get infected? I mean I guess monkeys travel and all…
And of course this is only the second time that Ebola has reached US shores - the first time the monkeys were caught in quarantine - and it never made it to humans.
If it wasn’t for the quick work of MSF (DWB over here) - who were in the area working on malaria - it sounds like this could have been much worse.
To be fair, that was a simian variant that doesn’t effect humans.
The initial symptoms of Ebola are the same as a cold or influenza. Even in those stages, where one wouldn’t know they have Ebola, it’s still contagious.
Oops - Sorry - I should have been clearer on that - and it isn’t 100% clear how dangerous Ebola reston is to humans. So far there haven’t been any real problems.
Some people have tested positive to exposure to it, but none got seriously ill or showed symptoms. I believe that most of the theory of it being simian only is based on the fact that no one got ill, but these animals were in quarantine - so there should have been SOME procedures in places to prevent transmission (for example - no kissing monkeys, use gloves, …). The one person who did cut him self while handling one - never got it. Also - the virus has been found in pigs apparently as well - and none of the farmers have gotten ill.
So humans can get it (in that they seroconverted), but so far it hasn’t hurt any of the 100% healthy population that has been exposed to it.
Interesting about the symptoms being similar to a cold or flu - as it reminds me of what I’ve read/heard about meningitis: by the time you get sick enough to NEED to be hospitalized - it is often too late. Not sure how true that is, and I know there isn’t a cure per se, but I’m guessing early treatment (I don’t know - lots of fluids?) might be better for Ebola.
As OI observed in a post above, According to Preston in The Hot Zone it wasn’t technically Ebola, but the related Marburg virus that the primates were infected with. I’m sure this would be greatly comforting to me if I caught it. “At least it’s not Ebola!”.
During the 1989 Reston outbreak 8 or 9 animal handlers “seroconverted”, meaning they were sufficiently exposed to Reston ebola to develop antibodies but never became ill. By that, it is meant they never showed any signs or symptoms of being ill. Subsequent outbreaks in Italy and the Phillipines have involved ill monkeys, never ill humans, During the Phillipine outbreak antibodies to Reston ebola were also found in pigs - but the pigs never became ill. Conclusion: Reston ebola hurts monkeys, not humans or pigs.
The Marburg virus is not ebola, though it is a relative. It does cause hemorrhagic fevers in human beings, with around 30-40% fatalities.
one interesting tidbit to go with the could be anything symptoms of high fever and gastrointestinal distress, is hiccoughs. ebola presents with hiccoughs at times.