Ebola haemorrhagic is a fever (EHF) which is viral diseases. It is causing death in 50-90% of all clinically ill cases. Several different species of Ebola virus have been identified. It is initial recognition in 1976. There are four identified subtypes of Ebola virus. This are :-

1) Ebola-Zaire

2) Ebola-Sudan

3) Ebola-Ivory Coast and

4) Ebola-Reston

The virions are variable in shape and may appear as a "U", "6", coiled, circular, or branched shape. Virions are generally 80 nm in diameter. They are variable in length, and can be up to 1400 nm long. On average however, the length of a typical Ebola virus is closer to 1000 nm.

Causes

Confirmed cases of Ebola HF have been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Sudan, the Ivory Coast, Uganda, and the Republic of the Congo. Ebola is spread by close contact with infected individuals. Contact with bodily fluids, especially with the blood, of an infected individual is extremely dangerous. The virus can be transmitted through the air to animals in experiments, but the evidence is insufficient to suggest that the virus is transmitted by air among humans. Health-care workers are at high risk of becoming infected with the Ebola virus while attending infected patients. Unhygienic hospital conditions, which may include the use of unsterilized syringes, commonly spread the virus. Transmission of the Ebola virus has also occurred by handling ill or dead infected chimpanzees.

Symptoms

Symptoms of Ebola hemorrhagic fever are :-

Headache

Sore throat,

Muscle aches,

Weakness

Vomiting

Abdominal pain,

Diarrhea

Pharyngitis (inflammation of the throat), and

Conjunctivitis (inflammation of the mucous membranes in the eye).

The blood fails to clot and patients may bleed from injection sites as well as into the gastrointestinal tract, skin and internal organs. Individuals with Ebola virus die as a result of a shock syndrome that usually occurs 69 days after the onset of symptoms.

Other secondary symptoms include hypotension (less than 90mm Hg), hypovolemia, tachycardia, severe organ damage (especially the kidneys, spleen, and liver) as a result of disseminated systemic necrosis, and proteinuria.

Treatment

There is no specific treatment for the disease. Currently, patients receive supportive therapy. This consists of balancing the patient's fluids and electrolytes, maintaining their oxygen level and blood pressure, and treating them for any complicating infections.

Ebola hemorrhagic fever is diagnosed using a laboratory technique called enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay. It searches blood samples for specific antigens or antibodies made by the infected patient. Persons tested later in the course of the disease or after recovery can be tested for IgM and IgG antibodies.

Vaccines have been produced for both Ebola and Marburg that were 100% effective in protecting a group of monkeys from the disease. These vaccines are based on either a recombinant Vesicular stomatitis virus or a recombinant Adenovirus carrying the Ebola spikeprotein on its surface.