African Ebola Fever

If you are at least occasionally interested in international news, you should know that in some African countries an epidemic is now declared. The cause was a very insidious and dangerous disease - African Ebola fever. Fortunately, in our latitudes the fever did not appear, and therefore the seriousness of the problem is difficult to imagine. In the article we will tell about the origin of the disease and some of its features.

Ebola fever virus

Ebola fever is an acute viral disease. Although the disease was discovered a long time, a sufficient amount of information about it could not be collected to this day. It is well known that people who are infected with the virus have frequent hemorrhages. And the most terrible thing is that the disease is characterized by a high level of mortality. Statistics are disappointing - up to 90% of patients die. In this case, a person infected with a fever presents a very serious danger to others.

The cause of the development of Ebola fever is the virus of the Ebolavirus group. It is considered one of the largest viruses, can take various forms. The causative agent of fever has an average degree of resistance, which significantly complicates the fight against it.

The main carriers of the virus are rodents and monkeys (there have been cases when people infected themselves by carcasses of chimpanzee carcasses). As the disappointing example of the Ebola epidemic in Africa shows, the virus is transmitted in all possible ways:

• contact;
• injecting;
• air-drip.

The virus penetrates into all areas of the body and can be in saliva, blood, urine. And accordingly, you can get infected simply by caring for the patient, living with him under one roof or just facing in the street.

Fixed outbreaks contribute to the development of vaccines against Ebola, but so far no universal medicine has been invented. There are medications that make it easier to relieve the patient, but they still need to be worked out.

The main symptoms of Ebola fever

The incubation period of Ebola fever can last from two days to two weeks. But basically the disease manifests itself after a week of staying in the body. The onset of the disease is very sharp: the patient's fever rises, severe headaches begin, he feels weak.

The main symptoms of fever are as follows:

1. The first signs are dryness and choking in the throat .
2. A couple of days after the onset of the disease, acute pains appear in the abdomen. Patients suffer from nausea and vomiting with blood. There is a strong dehydration of the body.
3. A person who is infected with African Ebola fever, eyes fall.
4. On the third or fourth day the virus shows the true face: the patient begins profuse bleeding. Bleeding can and open wounds, and mucous.
5. A week later, a rash may appear on the skin. A person becomes distracted, his mind becomes confused.

Developing in the world, the fever of Ebola has shown itself from a too cruel side: the lethal outcome comes on the eighth-ninth day. Death takes most of the patients. Those who were fortunate enough to defeat the virus survive a long and painful course of treatment, which can be accompanied by mental disorders, anorexia , hair loss.

Unfortunately, there is no specific prevention that prevents Ebola fever. The only effective method can be considered complete isolation of the patient. That is, an infected person should be in a separate cell with autonomous life support, and medical personnel working with him must use individual means of protection.