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Ministry scoffs at Ebola virus rumors
The Ministry of Health yesterday said no Ebola cases have been reported on the Chinese mainland, rejecting Internet rumors that the virus has been detected in Shenzhen, southern Guangdong Province.
The ministry recently ordered Guangdong health authorities to investigate after rumors spread on the Internet that Shenzhen has been hit by an outbreak of Ebola virus infection. The virus, named after the Ebola River in Congo where it was first identified, can cause hemorrhagic fever in human beings, with massive bleeding and destruction of internal tissues.
**Ebola FAQ What exactly is Ebola? Ebola is a filovirus named after a river in Zaire, its first site of
discovery. This filovirus is usually fatal, and it affects monkeys, apes and
humans. Filoviruses are string-shaped, with a little hook or loop at one end.
Another filovirus is the Marbug virus, which gives similar symptoms to Ebola,
but the chance of surving an infection of Marbug virus is higher.
As of 6-06-1998, there have been four identified: Ebola Zaire - The virus discovered in Zaire in 1976 - the first known
occurrence of the Ebola Virus. What are the symptoms? All forms of viral hemorrhagic fever begin with fever and muscle aches. Depending on the particular virus, disease can progress until the patient becomes very ill with respiratory problems, severe bleeding, kidney problems, and shock. With Ebola, persons develop fever, chills, headaches, muscle aches, and loss of appetite. As the disease progresses, vomiting, bloody diarrhea, abdominal pain, sore throat, and chest pain can occur. The blood fails to clot and patients bleed from injection sites as well as into the gastrointestinal tract, skin, and internal organs. Basically, you just bleed from every orifice. Ebola Zaire seems to be fatal in about 90% of the cases. Ebola Sudan is fatal in about 60%. We can't really determine a fatality rate in humans for the recently discovered Ebola Tai strain. There has only been one case, and the Swiss researcher who contracted it from a chimpanzee in the Tai forest was critically ill, but she survived (probably due to the intensive care she received in Switzerland). Ebola Reston is not known to be fatal to humans, but very fatal to monkeys. How is it transmitted? The Ebola virus is spread through close personal contact with a person who is infected with Ebola. Often, infection (in previous outbreaks) have occurred among hospital care workers or family members who were caring for an ill or dead person infected with Ebola virus. Blood and body fluids contain large amounts of virus, thus transmission of the virus has also occurred as a result of hypodermic needles being reused in the treatment of patients. Reusing needles is not an uncommon practice in developing countries, such as Zaire, Gabon, and Sudan, where the health care system is signficantly underfinanced. How long is the incubation period/onset of symptoms? Anywhere from 2 to 21 days, although 7-14 days is the most common interval. Is there any cure or vaccine? Unfortunately not. One of the keys to try to find a cure or vaccine for Ebola is to discover its' natural host. Although extensive research has been done, scientist have no evidence of the natural host of Ebola. Many people are under the misconception that monkeys are the natural host for Ebola. This is highly unlikely since monkeys die of Ebola as
quickly as humans. A disease 'looks' for a host that can transmit it as much as
possible. If a host dies off of the disease in a few days, that isn't much help
to the disease.
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