Plague Fighters

Plague Fighters

1. What was the cause of the epidemic? 

-Ebola= virus

2. Where and when did this epidemic occur? 

-Kikwit in Democratic Republic of Congo (Africa) in 1995 

3. What are the symptoms? 

-attacks vital organs- results in bleeding inside and out, rash, vomiting blood, eyes filled with blood, fixed stares (frozen facial expression), death after 10 days

4. How is it transmitted? 

-coming into direct contact with bodily fluids: tears, blood, surface of skin, sperm

5. How did the scientists prevent the spread of the epidemic?

- Found every case and isolated them ie. quarantine 

-used protective clothing to prevent spread and bleach to kill virus

-stopped ritual funerals where dead person was touched, instead dead were immediately body bagged and buried (no touching)

6. What is meant by “chain of death”?

- you could see the progression of primary care givers of the sick becoming sick

7. What is the natural host for the disease?

-unknown

8. Who was the index case for this outbreak, and what did he do for a living?

-Gaspar Menga- charcoal worker from Kikwit

9. What is the treatment for Ebola?

-None, just supportive care

10. How was nurse Nicole treated? Did she recover?

-blood transfusion from a survivor of Ebola, it contains antibodies against Ebola

11. What was the controversy surrounding her treatment?

- she could obtain other diseases the blood donor has like HIV, Hepatitis, Malaria

-they could have misdiagnosed her with Ebola and actually give her Ebola 

12. Could there be alternate reasons that the treatment was successful for the patients seen at the end of the epidemic?

-after going through many people- virus is less virulent at end

-late in epidemic people were getting smaller viral loads when infected- so didn’t get the virus as badly

13. What is the major concern about highly virulent diseases like Ebola (think about the Reston, Virginia, incident)?

-that they will be airborne

14. Why might Ebola outbreaks become more common in the future?

-bc people are moving into rain forests as populations expand

- brings us closer to whatever the source of Ebola is