Ebola virus disease (EVD)

• Ebola virus disease (EVD or Ebola) is a rare but severe and often fatal illness in humans.
• The average Ebola case fatality rate is around 50%, and this has varied from 25–90% in past outbreaks, depending on circumstances and the response.
• Ebola first appeared in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks in South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The latter occurred in a village near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name.
• The origin of the virus is unknown, but current evidence suggests that fruit bats (Pteropodidae) may be a host. 

Transmission: Direct contact

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. This may happen by:  

• Touching or eating animals that are infected (monkeys, apes, bats)
• This is especially true if bushmeat is not well cooked
• Touching the waste (faeces/poop) from infected fruit bats
• Through direct contact with tissue, blood, other body fluids, and excretions from an infected animal.

Ebola then spreads through human-to-human transmission through the following ways:

• Contact with the blood, faeces/poop, vomit, spit, sweat, tears, breast milk or semen from a person sick with Ebola
  • Contact can be with objects that have been contaminated with the body fluids from a person who is sick with Ebola (for example, bedding, clothes or needles)
• When handling the body of someone who has died from Ebola
• Coming into contact with semen (for example, through sex) from someone who has recovered from Ebola (Ebola can be spread through semen for up to 12 months after recovery)
• Pregnant women who get acute Ebola and recover from the disease may still carry the virus in breastmilk, or in pregnancy related fluids and tissues. 

Most vulnerable to severe consequences 

• Every person in the community is vulnerable to Ebola (** it is a very deadly disease than can kill many – half to almost all people who get infected can die **)
• Pregnant and breastfeeding women

Most vulnerable to contracting the disease

• Family and relatives of people who are sick (or who have died) from Ebola
• Health workers, volunteers, and people who handle dead bodies

Symptoms

At the beginning there may be: 

• Sudden fever
• Tiredness
• Muscle pain
• Headache
• Sore throat

Followed by:

• Vomiting
• Diarrhoea
• Rash

Bleeding - under the skin or from the nose and gums (inside mouth), coughing blood or having bloody faeces (sometimes)

Marburg and Ebola viruses which are both members of the same virus family, have similar clinical signs, and have the capacity to cause outbreaks with high fatality rates