That
the Ebola virus has killed close to 700 people across mostly three
countries since a new outbreak in February this year is no longer news.
There has been over 1200 cases in this particular outbreak which has
been described as the largest outbreak of Ebola ever recorded.
ADVERTISEMENT
Not
only has the virus spread from the primarily remote villages in
Central and West Africa tropical rainforests where it was, before now,
prevalent, this virus which is one of the deadliest viruses ever known
to man, has stealthily crept across West African countries of Guinea,
Liberia, Sierra Leone and has been reported to have killed one in
Lagos.
With members of the public succumbing to the blow from the virus,
health workers, in spite of precautionary steps, are usually the worst
hit. Besides local health practitioners who have, over the years,
contracted the virus, foreign health workers providing charity services
have also been affected.
Just recently, two doctors leading the fight against the disease in
Africa – Dr. Samuel Brisbane, a top Liberian health official, and Sheik
Umar Khan, a leading Sierra Leone doctor – have both died after
contracting Ebola.
In the past week, there have been reports that health workers working
at a charity centre for the Ebola virus in Liberia have been hit by the
ravaging virus.
The health workers, both of whom are Americans, worked for the
humanitarian organisation, Samaritan’s Purse, which has an Ebola care
centre at the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia.
Dr. Ken Brantly, the 33-year-old Medical Director for the care
centre, was previously confirmed as infected with the virus and just
last week, Nancy Writebol, a Christian missionary who had been working
as a hygienist decontaminating those entering and leaving the Ebola
care area at the hospital, was showing full symptoms of the virus.
Though both Americans have been isolated and are under intensive
treatment, Ken Isaacs, the Christian relief group’s Vice President of
Program and Government Relations, said the fact that health care
workers have been infected underscores the severity of the West Africa
outbreak that has killed hundreds in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
“It’s been a shock to everyone on our team to have two of our players
get pounded with the disease,” said Isaacs, adding that health
ministries in those poor nations are challenged to respond. “Our team
is frankly getting tired,” he stated.
Cambridge University’s Dr Peter Walsh, a lecturer in archaeology and
anthropology and an Ebola expert, said: “This strain of Ebola is
probably the second most deadly virus in the world after canine rabies.
If you get canine rabies, you’re going to die, but we have vaccines
for that.” Ebola virus, on the hand, currently has no vaccine or cure.
Though Ebola is introduced into the human population through close
contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of
infected animals especially fruit bats and spreads in the community
through human-to-human transmission, with infection resulting from
direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the
blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people,
and indirect contact with environments contaminated with such fluid,
there are silent fears that the virus might have mutated and can now
be spread by airborne means and not just only through body secretions.
One theory that fuels this suspicion is the fact that the two US
Doctors, who have now contracted Ebola in Liberia, did so despite
adequate protection.
Additionally, one study carried out by Canadian researchers in 2012
showed how monkeys can catch the deadly disease from infected pigs
without coming into direct contact, thus raising concerns about the
previously thought idea that the untreatable virus, which causes massive
internal bleeding and multiple organ failure, could only be
transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids.
The researchers at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg
deliberately infected six piglets with the Ebola virus and put them in
pens where macaque monkeys were housed in wire cages.
Within eight days all four monkeys caught the virus through indirect
contact, according to the 2012 study entitled “Transmission of Ebola
virus from pigs to non-human primate” published in the journal
Scientific Reports. Dr Gary Kobinger, Head, Special Pathogens at the
National Microbiology Laboratory of the Public Health Agency of Canada
took part in the study.
He told BBC News that they suspect that large droplets of moisture
containing the virus were being exhaled with the piglets’ breath.
“They (the virus) can stay in the air, but not long; they don’t go
far,” he told the press men. “But they can be absorbed in the airway and
this is how the infection starts, and this is what we think, because we
saw a lot of evidence in the lungs of the non-human primates that the
virus got in that way,” he disclosed.
Further work is needed but the findings are worrying as macaques are close genetic relatives to humans, said the researchers.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Ebola has a death
rate of between 50 and 90 per cent and there are no specific treatments
for the disease— treatment is primarily supportive and includes
balancing fluids and electrolytes to counter dehydration.
Perhaps, what makes the virus more petrifying is the fact that the
initial signs of infection imitate other diseases, like common cold,
malaria or typhoid. According to the United States Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, the incubation period for Ebola ranges from two
to 21 days. The onset of illness is abrupt and is characterised by
fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, sore throat, and weakness,
followed by diarrhoea, vomiting, and stomach pain. A rash, red eyes and
hiccups may also be seen. The virus pierces veins and capillaries,
forcing the blood vessels to bleed into the surrounding tissue,
resulting in internal bleeding in mostly the gastrointestinal tract and
other internal organs. The virus aggressively wipes out the building
blocks of the body’s immune system and tiny blood vessels burst, causing
patients to spontaneously bleed from their eyes, mouths, ears, and
other orifices.
Researchers do not understand why some people are able to recover
from Ebola and others are not. However, it is known that patients who
die usually have not developed a significant immune response to the
virus at the time of death.
For
those infected who survive, recovery could be quick and total, or
prolonged with long-term problems including joint pain, muscle pain,
skin peeling and hair loss.
In spite of the grim realities of this disease, researchers have been
working round the clock to provide a vaccine, if not a cure to combat
it.
Dr Kobinger, who recently returned from the front lines of the
outbreak in West Africa, said that he believes this is the last time the
world would have to combat the virus without specific treatments or
protective vaccines. He added that the outbreak is the most challenging
of the six Ebola responses he has been on, but he believes the
containment efforts are making progress.
He suggested this outbreak will speed efforts to get emergency use
approvals to employ some of the experimental vaccines and therapies in
future Ebola epidemics.
“My really, really deepest wish — and I don’t want to call this a
dream, because it’s not a dream — is that there won’t be another
outbreak like this. This is the last one. Next time, we’ll be ready,”
Kobinger said in an interview with the Canadian Press.
But Kobinger agreed with others in his field who have argued that it
would be unwise to use untested tools this time, saying the Ebola
vaccines and drugs must go through Phase 1 clinical trials in people
before they could be used in an outbreak setting. Phase 1 trials involve
giving a drug or vaccine to a small number of healthy adult volunteers
to ensure that it is safe for human use.
“These are all experimental drugs that have not met the requirements,
even for a Phase 1 (trial) right now in humans. So, they have to pass
all the toxicity (tests), and the safety trials,” he said.
The WHO Regional Director for the Africa Region, Dr Luis Sambo, in a
fact-finding mission to the three currently most affected countries,
underscored the seriousness of the outbreak while reiterating that it
can be contained using known infection prevention and control measures.
He observed that the outbreak is beyond each national health sector
alone and urged the governments of the affected countries to mobilise
and involve all sectors, including civil society and communities, in the
response.
Currently, the only way of combating infection is by prevention. If a
person is in an area affected by the outbreak, or has been in contact
with a person known or suspected to have Ebola, they should seek medical
help immediately. This is not the time to visit spiritual houses or
hide the victim. According to the United States Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, preventive measures include the following:
Practice careful hygiene. Avoid contact with blood and body fluids of
severely ill people. Do not handle items that may have come in contact
with an infected person’s blood or body fluids.
Avoid funeral or burial rituals that require handling the body of someone who has died from Ebola.
Avoid contact with animals or with raw meat.
Avoid hospitals where Ebola patients are being treated.
Seek medical care if you develop fever, headache, achiness, sore throat, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, rash, or red eyes.
For health workers, who may be exposed to people with the disease, the following steps can be taken:
Wear protective clothing, including masks, gloves, gowns, and eye protection.
Practice proper infection control and sterilization measures.
Isolate Ebola patients from unprotected people.
Avoid direct contact with the bodies of people who died from Ebola.
Notify health officials if you have been exposed to someone with Ebola.
