One really cool feature of WHO’s website is being able to see the disease outbreaks by the year. Despite all the hysteria with the COVID-19, I was surprised to see the that there was outbreaks of other diseases. One of the outbreaks was occurring in the Democratic Republic of Congo was an outbreak of Ebola. The outbreak dates back to as early as January of 2015.
Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a disease with occasional outbreaks that have occurred primarily in the African continent. EVD is a zoonosis, and most commonly affect people and nonhuman primates (monkeys, gorillas, chimpanzees). There are many different serotypes within the genus Ebolavirus. These serotypes include Ebola virus, Suda virus, Tai Forest virus, Bundibugyo virus, Reston virus, and Bombali virus. The only four of the Ebola, Sudan Tai Forest and Bundibugyo viruses are the only four of the viruses that can cause human disease.
The CDC states that the Ebola virus was discovered in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since its discovery the virus has been causing infectious outbreaks in several African countries. The virus can be spread through vectors, specifically bats and primates. It can also be spread to people through the direct contact with the blood, body fluids or tissues of these animals.
The CDC reports that there were fourteen new confirmed cases from January 8th through the 14th. This makes a total of 40 confirmed cases since December 25th, 2019 in the recent outbreak and 3288 confirmed cases within the region. The region has been able to curb the rise of the Ebola outbreak because of an FDA approved vaccine called the rVSV-ZEBOV. This vaccine is specifically only for the Zaire ebolavirus species of ebolavirus. There is no antiviral drug licensed by the FDA to treat EVD in people. The new drugs that are currently being developed are meant to stop the virus from making copies of itself.
The Center for Disaster Philanthropy claims that this outbreak was the second-largest and second-deadliest Ebola outbreak. The Democratic Republic of Congo who continue to provide ongoing support to Ebola Treatment Centers. They report that the overall case fatality ratio is 66%.
I chose to do this disease because it was a disease that was similar to COVID-19 because it was highly popularized within the media. Many people knew about the virus and there was a lot of speculation about the virus. One thing that is interesting to is the treatment of blacks when an outbreak occurs. The U.S was very quick to shut its borders to African travelers and officials, yet during the COVID-19 outbreak they were slow to do so, which is one of the reasons we are in the situation we are in now. I feel like this shows how racism can play a role in the transmission of these diseases and the societal impacts. Not to say the Asians and Asian-Americans have not received any racist remarks and attack on the individual and national levels, but this is an example of how diseases like Ebola, that are associated with Africa are taken more seriously than other diseases. Disease has no race, people are dying.
Madison's Microbiology Masterpiece 