Ebola virus was first discovered in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since then, outbreaks have occurred sporadically in Africa.
Morphologically, when studied under an electron microscope, the viral particles look like long stretched filaments with some particles tending to curve into an appearance looking like the number 6.
Five species of Ebola virus have been identified: Zaire ebolavirus (ZEBOV), Sudan ebolavirus (SUDV), Bundibugyo ebolavirus (BDBV) Taï Forest ebolavirus (TAFV) and Reston ebolavirus (RESTV). Among them, BDBV, ZEBOV, and SUDV have been associated with large outbreaks in Africa.
The Ebola virus has an incubation period ranging between 2 and 21 days. Initially, the patient manifests signs and symptoms of flu that rapidly progress to bleeding, shock and multiple organ failure.
Ebola disease is a severe, often fatal illness in humans. The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and then spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission.
Ebola virus infections are depicted by immune suppression and a systemic inflammatory response that leads to damage of the vascular, coagulation and immune systems, causing multi-organ failure and shock.
Ebola virus
