Essay/Term paper: The ebola virus

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Biology

Life
is a biological internet in which viruses travel like
messages, moving at high speed from node to
node and from city to city. They are diverse and
wild spread in every plane on the surface of the
earth. Ironically, such invisible creatures have a
substantially enormous effects on human life and
health. In most cases, Viruses are harmful and
sometimes deadly. One of these deadly viruses is
the Ebola virus, a highly contagious, deadly and
mysterious microbe, known to be the most lethal
virus known to human kind that have caused many
devastation. The mere essence of their existence is
not to cause harm, they are living organisms who
want to reproduce and spread with the help of a
host. The Ebola virus, like most viruses, consists
of a shell of proteins surrounding genetic material,
like RNA and DNA. Once inside the cell, the
virus gets hold to the host cell and the virus may
enter the cell as it injects its genetic material into
the host cell. The virus then uses the host cell's
machinery to replicate themselves and make new
copies of itself. Each new copy of the virus directs
the host cell to make it a protein shell. The new
viruses leave the host cell to other cells and repeat
the same process over and over again. Although
man is not Ebola's natural host, the virus infects
people, and the adventure is suicidal as the
infected victims struggle with the symptoms The
infected victim staggers, disoriented and
exhausted, and collapses in a fever, which is
known as the Haemorrhagic fever. The fever is
characterized by weakness, muscle pain,
headache and sore throat. The victim's eyes turn
bright red, and starts vomiting blood. The tongue
peels, and the heart muscle becomes soft.
Scientists believe that when the victim get in
contact with the virus, the virus first triggers a
combination of blood clots and hemorrhages. The
patient's bloodstream throws clots, and the clots
lodge everywhere, especially in the spleen, liver,
and brain, then it settle in the victim throat.
Bleeding involves the nose, abdomen, and
pericardium. Capillary leakage appears to lead to
loss of interavascular volume leading the patient to
fall in a shock and acute respiratory disorder
leaving the patient desperately trying to gasp their
breath. The virus kills its victims so quickly, before
it even can infect others. The incubation period for
the Ebola virus ranges from 2 to 21 days,
depending upon the method of infection. The
Ebola virus can be diagnosed with laboratory
testing of blood specimens under maximum
containment conditions as the high risk of infection
to those handling infected blood remains a
nightmare to them. Infection of this deadly virus
occurs through the blood and is replicated in
organs like the Liver, lymphatic organs, and the
kidneys. However, it is spread through close
personal contact with the infected person who is
very ill with the disease. Normally, the wild spread
of Ebola virus takes place among hospital care
workers or family members who were aiding an
infected person. Ebola can spread by the reuse of
hypodermic needles, which occurs frequently in
underdeveloped countries like Zaire and Sudan,
but it is unlikely to become infected by close
contact with persons infected who show no
symptoms. Three outbreaks of Ebola hemorrhagic
fever among people had been reported. The first
two outbreaks were in 1976: one in Zaire and one
in western Sudan. These were large outbreaks,
resulting in more than 550 cases and 340 deaths.
The third outbreak, in 1979 in Sudan, was smaller,
with 34 cases and 22 fatalities. During each of
these outbreaks, a majority of cases occurred in
hospital settings under the challenging conditions of
the developing world. These conditions, including
lack of healthy medical supplies and the reuse of
the same needles and syringes, played a major
role in the spread of disease. Through isolation of
sick persons in a place requiring the wearing of
mask, gown and gloves careful sterilization of
needles and syringes and proper disposal of waste
and corpses. Causing death in 85% of all ill cases.
More than 5,000 people have been infected
worldwide. Victims go mad, endure unbelievable
pain, with blood leaking from every orifice. Yet no
one knows where the virus comes from, or when it
will strike next. Although humans have gotten
Ebola from infected monkeys, these primates are
considered unlikely long-term hosts because the
virus kills them. Until now, scientists do not know
where does the virus lives in nature, or who is the
original host. But they hypothetically believe that it
came from the forest. The gruesome mystery of
who's the original host of the Ebola virus remains
unanswered. While the monkey remain the main
suspect, efforts have been done to minimize the
spreading of the disease. "One of deadliest
diseases known has emerged from the forests of
Africa" said Purvis, an author of a published article
in the Time magazine. Purvis discussed the
scientists suspensions about the original host of this
lethal virus in his article. He said that the scientists
had suspected that the disease which killed 245 in
the Zairian town of Kikwit, was transmitted to
humans from Chimpanzees or eating dead
monkeys. Colobus monkeys, for example, can
transmit the virus to chimpanzees, which hunt
them, and people get the virus after eating a dead
chimp, and that where the theory that chimp carry
the virus came from Elizabeth Neus, an Idaho
statesman author, agrees with Purvis that
chimpanzees might be the real host for the virus.
Purvis and Neus both agree that the theory looks
pretty solid since the last out Break of the Ebola
virus. However, this theory contradicts what Steve
Sternberg, who scientifically proved, that bats only
the bats proved capable of carrying Ebola. bats
could be the animal host that scientist have
searched for ever since Ebola first emerged in
Zaire. Researchers have been greatly slowed by
extreme of pathogens of the virus. Weather Ebola
can be cured or not? Will be forever a mystery, till
scientists can slow the rapid growth of those
viruses. Slow enough to give man kind a fighting
chance to their existence, and slow than messages
that is transmitted by the internet