What is Ebola?

• Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a rare but severe, often fatal illness in humans.
• The average EVD case fatality rate is around 50%.
• The 2014–2016 outbreak in West Africa was the largest Ebola outbreak since the virus was first discovered in 1976. The outbreak started in Guinea and then moved across land borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia.
• The current 2018-2019 outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is highly complex, with insecurity adversely affecting public health response activities.

Transmission:

• It is thought that fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are natural Ebola virus hosts. Hence, Statement (c) is correct.
• Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals such as fruit bats, chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys, forest antelope or porcupines found ill or dead or in the rainforest.
• Ebola then spreads through human-to-human transmission via direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with:
  • Blood or body fluids of a person who is sick with or has died from Ebola
  • Objects that have been contaminated with body fluids (like blood, feces, vomit) from a person sick with Ebola or the body of a person who died from Ebola
• There is no evidence that mosquitoes or other insects can transmit Ebola virus.

Treatment

• Supportive care – rehydration with oral or intravenous fluids – and treatment of specific symptoms improves survival.
• There is as yet no proven treatment available for EVD.
• However, a range of potential treatments including blood products, immune therapies and drug therapies are currently being evaluated.

Vaccines

• The rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine is being used in the ongoing 2018-2019 Ebola outbreak in DRC.
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the approval of Ervebo, the first FDA-approved vaccine for the prevention of Ebola virus disease (EVD).

Why in News?

The Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on June 1, 2020 announced a new outbreak of Ebola in the city of Mbandaka.

More in the news

• This is the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s 11th outbreak of Ebola since the virus was first discovered in the country in 1976.
• The country’s 10th outbreak, which started in 2018 in its eastern part, is the second-largest Ebola epidemic on record and is in its final stages.