For now the Ebola virus is yet to visit Nigeria; one hopes it stays that way. One also hopes the spread of the virus in other West African countries can be brought to a complete halt. As individuals, we each have a responsibility and duty of care in disease control. Let us invest our time into learning about the Ebola virus, let us each make an effort to stop its spread. Infection can occur through eating fruits that have been contaminated with by bats with the virus. As a result, it is vital to wash every fruit before eating. Likewise, the creative manner in which some Nigerians devour bush-meat has to be carried out with utmost caution, because if we have learnt anything from these kinds of diseases, it is that their natural reservoir is usually wild animals, especially wild monkeys and wild rodents. The disease itself is contracted through contact with infected blood or through the exchange of body fluids from an infected person or animal. Early symptoms of the disease include, fever, headache, chills, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, sore throat, backache, and joint pains. Later symptoms include bleeding from the eyes, ears and nose, bleeding from the mouth and rectum, eye swelling, swelling of the genitals and rashes all over the body that often contain blood. It could progress to coma, shock and eventually death. Ebola was first discovered in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire). The virus is named after the Ebola River where one of the first recorded outbreaks occurred. Bats are believed to be largely responsible for the Ebola virus. Studies have shown that the virus was originally transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission, with fruit bats of the ‘Pteropodidae’ family considered to be the natural host. The largest-ever outbreak was in 2000-01 in Uganda, with 425 cases, about half of whom died, according to WHO estimates. From the time the virus was identified in humans, pharmaceutical researchers have been unable to develop an effective drug or vaccine to combat the disease.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 09:12:09 +0000
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