According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the US Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) it takes the lives of 90% of those who are infected with it. If I was to come in contact with it and I spread it amongst this classroom only two of you would survive. I've spent countless hours researching the CDC, USAMRIID, and World Health Organization (WHO) databases on the net Combined with the research I've completed in the library I'm prepared to tell you about Ebola. Named after the river by which it was discovered, Ebola is the most lethal virus ever witnessed by humankind. I use the word witnessed to demonstrate the single most important fact about Ebola, that it acts so quickly there is nothing scientists can do once it has been diagnosed. (Internal Preview) On this day I would like to tell you about the four W's of Ebola. When and where was it discovered and diagnosed, what is Ebola, and why is it important that we know about it.
First and foremost, Ebola, when and where was it discovered? According to CDC Ebola Zaire, one of the four known types of the Ebola virus, was first discovered in Zaire, Africa in the year 1976. USAMRIID reports the first epidemic occurred in the small town of Nzara where a stock clerk in a cotton factory without warning dropped to the floor and bleed to death internally. The cause was reported as unknown according to WHO (World Health Organization).
USAMRIID goes on to say that several days after the incident other workers fell to similar deaths. Because the origin of the sickness was still unknown proper isolation and quarantines were not issued and an epidemic befell the local hospital. But as fast as this deadly microbe appeared, it also disappeared. The 1976 epidemic subsided shortly after its deadly arrival.
Now that I've told you about the discovery of Ebola let us discuss the symptoms of the virus and how it is spread..
According to the CDC, USAMRIID, and WHO, the symptoms of Ebola begin 4 to 16 days after infection. Symptoms, according to CDC are a fever, the chills, headaches, muscle aches, and a loss of appetite. As the disease progresses vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pains, sore throats and chest pains occur. Finally the blood fails to clot and patients may bleed from injection sites as well as into the gastrointestinal tract, the skin and internal organs. Death by Ebola is caused by the loss of blood, blood plasma, low water volume and organ failure. 90% of patients die within 21 days after the onset of infection according to CDC.
USAMRIID reports the virus is spread, to date, by physical contact with an infected persons bodily fluids, for example, saliva, and sweat. CDC reports that the virus can also pass by means of sexual contact. USAMRIID states that epidemics occur merely because of poor sanitation and health coverage as in Zaire, and other struggling countries, where they use the same needle for more than one person.
Now that we've discussed the symptoms of Ebola and how the disease is spread let us discuss its importance and the relevance the disease has to American's.
What is so important about Ebola and what relevance does it have to Americans? This is probably the very question you're asking yourself at this moment. Sure the disease is isolated in African nations, there have only been four epidemics since 1976 and the disease is not airborne so it must only be passed by physical contact as compared to the common cold which passes through the air. Wrong!
According to a USAMRIID study, Chief of Pathology Colonel Nancy Jaxx reports that two healthy control monkeys in a cage 10 feet away from their experimental counterparts died 10 to 11 days after the monkeys purposely infected with the Ebola virus.
This report means to state that Ebola may be mutating into an airborne virus.
In another report by USAMRIID and the CDC tests concerned with the possibility of Ebola becoming airborne show increasing evidence that Ebola may due just that. Using aerosol cans as a means of transport a few hundred particles of Ebola were combined with millions of particles of pure air, and expelled, the results showed that Ebola was passed through the air. Basically this suggests that given the means to travel by air, Ebola will.
This study means that Ebola, the most lethal disease known to humankind can be used as a bio-weapon if it were airborne, or at least that's what one terrorist group thinks. Remember that bombing in the Japanese subway system several months ago? The same terrorists that delivered that bomb are threatening to use Ebola in terrorist activities.
In a country as productive as Japan, Ebola would easily find its way to the United States before any symptoms became clear. If used Ebola would spread like wildfire. The threat of Ebola is real, and its effects are even more devastating.
I've told you about its discovery in 1976 during the first outbreak, about the symptoms of Ebola and how it is spread, and I've told you about the real threat Ebola posses. I'd like to conclude with a comparison.
This is the HIV virus [transparency], we are all familiar with this virus it causes AIDS in its victims. AIDS then attacks the immune systems "Helper T" cells. Victims of AIDS most often die by other diseases and not by AIDS itself. The CDC reports that a cumulative number of 476,899 AIDS cases have been reported to the CDC.
In comparison, this is the Ebola Zaire virus [transparency], according to USAMRIID and CDC an estimated 430 people have died from Ebola. Ebola attacks the lining of blood capillaries, thus blood and blood plasma are lost, low water volume and internal organ failure occur and the host dies.
However, if Ebola were to become airborne, if it were to be used by the terrorist group in Japan, or by any terrorist group, deaths by Ebola would be double that amount of cumulative cases of AIDS, and triple it, and quadruple it and so on. There is no cure to Ebola, nor is there a vaccine.
How many of you say the movie "Outbreak?" That movie was based upon the worst scenario of the worlds most lethal viruses. However, the movie found its answer in the very being that gave the virus to humans, the initial carrier. For Ebola the initial carrier is unknown. Ebola is a real threat and a dangerous one at that. Who knows what would happen if terrorists used it in radical movements.