What is Ebola?

Earlier today, I was listening to the podcast: This Podcast Will Kill You (TPWKY) about Ebola. TPWKY is an amazing podcast (more info at the bottom) about different diseases. Lots of the information here is from the podcast, and I highly encourage you to go check it out.

What is it?

Ebola Virus Disease is a rare but deadly viral disease. It is a filovirus; this means that it appears as a long thin fibrous thread. It also characterized by its hemorrhagic fevers.

There are five main strands:

• Ebola virus (Zaire ebolavirus)

• Sudan virus (Sudan ebolavirus)

• Taï Forest virus (Taï Forest ebolavirus, formerly Côte d’Ivoire ebolavirus)

• Bundibugyo virus (Bundibugyo ebolavirus)

• Reston virus (Reston ebolavirus)

• Bombali virus (Bombali ebolavirus)

What are the symptoms and how is it transmitted?

Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with almost all bodily fluids. The disease can only be transmitted after the infected person starts showing symptoms (about 2-21 days after infection). It becomes increasingly infectious as time goes on and a dead infected body is the most infected.

Some of its many symptoms include:

• Abdominal pain

• Headache

• Fever

• Sore throat

• Joint pain

• Diarrhea

• Bleeding from gums

• Vomiting

• Rashes

• Internal and External bleeding

How does Ebola affect the body?

Ebola attacks the dendritic cells (the brains of the immune system). It enters the cell cytoplasm and takes over the cell. This stops the dendritic cell from activating preventative antibodies. The infected cell produces more Ebola viruses inside itself and eventually dissolves, releasing millions of viruses. To make matters worse, the affected dendritic cells sends signals to the body’s antibodies (T cells and natural killer cells) to perform cell death.

Ebola also affects the macrophages and monocytes. As a result, macrophages release large amounts of cytokines (a protein vital to signaling). Usually there is just enough cytokine being produced by macrophages to cause inflammation and kill invaders. An excess of cytokines has many damaging effects:

1. Forms clots in blood vessels (disseminated intravascular coagulation)

2. Weakens endothelial cells in blood vessels. This leads to internal and external bleeding

Both effects decrease blood flow and rob vital organs from oxygen. As the disease spreads throughout the body and affects organs such as the liver, spleen, and lymph nodes and makes their macrophages release cytokines. As a result, the body is overwhelmed by cytokines and the organs start shutting down – ultimately leading to death.

This Podcast Will Kill You

This is an amazing podcast that discusses many different diseases. Here is their site: http://thispodcastwillkillyou.com/