Ebola Transmission

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Introduction

The Ebola virus is a severe disease-causing pathogen that poses a huge threat to human health mostly within central Africa. Ebola is considered a Biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) agent; classifying it among the most threatening agents that exist in the world today. Agents within this category pose severe threats to human health and can be fatal due to the lack of treatments and/or available vaccines. There are five known Ebola species within the family Filoviridae and all of the species within the family cause varying degrees of viral hemorrhagic fever illnesses.

Virus Structure

Include some current research in each topic, with at least one figure showing data.

A closeup photo of the Ebola virus.

Containment and Transmission

Workers from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) demonstrating proper attire worn in BSL-4 labs.

Include some current research in each topic, with at least one figure showing data.

A map indicating the locations of Ebola outbreaks throughout Africa.

Possible Treatments

Include some current research in each topic, with at least one figure showing data.

Conclusion

In today's world Ebola is still a huge problem that faces many developing nations within Africa. In 2012 alone there were 5 outbreaks of Hemorrhagic Fevers around the world and 3 of them were due to the Ebola virus.⁶

References

Aleksandrowicz, P., A. Marzi, N. Biedenkopf, N. Beimforde, S. Becker et al. "Ebola Virus Enters Host Cells by Macropinocytosis and Clathrin-Mediated Endocytosis". The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 2011. Volume 204. Suppl 3S957-967.

Bharat T., et al. "Structural dissection of Ebola virus and its assembly determinants using cryo-electron tomography". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2012. p. 4275-4280.

Noda, T., H. Ebihara, Y. Muramoto, K. Fujii, A. Takada, et al. "Assembly and Budding of Ebolavirus". PLoS Pathogens. 2006. Volume 2(9).

Phoolcharoen, Waranyoo, John M. Dye, et al. "A nonreplicating subunit vaccine protects mice against lethal Ebola virus challenge". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2011. Volume 180.51. p. 20695-0700.

Weingartl, Hana M., Carissa Embury-Hyatt, Charles Nfon, Anders Leung, Greg Smith, and gary Kobinger. "Transmission of Ebola virus from pigs to non-human primates". Scientific Reports 2. 2012.

Edited by (Victoria Rose Gawlik), a student of Nora Sullivan in BIOL187S (Microbial Life) in The Keck Science Department of the Claremont Colleges Spring 2013.